The Last Adventure Of Ash Ketchum
by Lygatto-Un-Sorceror
Summary: Ash is finally done with traveling from region to region. Just before he does Lance comes to him with a problem originating from the ancient past in Hoenn.
1. Team Magma Rises

Ash was sitting down at his home in Pallet Town, home from his latest regional challenge, though this time he didn't even manage to get all eight badges in time. Then he heard the phone ring. When he picked it up he said, "Hello, Ketchum residence. Ash speaking."

"Ash!" the person on the other end said, "you're just the person I needed to talk to."

" Lance? Why? No, actually, what do you mean?"

"We just got some reports from the Hoenn Region saying that someone has gotten it into their head to bring back Team Magma."

"Team Magma? You mean that team that what's'is'name lead trying to manipulate Groudon? What does that have to do with me? Or Kanto in general for that matter?"

"Now that I'm the champion of the Kanto Region I can't very well go roaming around like I used to, going undercover within criminal organisations anymore."

"Wait. Do you mean that you want _me_ to infiltrate Team _Magma_?"

"Yes."

"Why? Just contact the Hoenn Region. They should be able to handle it. Besides, I'm just about to…"

"We have other reports telling us that elements within the Pokémon League in Hoenn are working with Team Aqua."

"Team _Aqua_ is back too?"

"We can't be sure. Like I said, we are getting reports of it."

"Aren't official reports usually true though?" Ash asked.

"Yes, but the reports that _I_ get _now_ are the ones that contain information that goes into those 'official reports' and _that_ needs to be verified, and as I said, I can't do it myself.

"Which brings us back to my question. Why me?"

"Frankly, it doesn't have to be. If you can point me to someone else that has your skills _and_ has recently had a very public stoush with the pokémon league, _and_ lost, then I will contact them and broach the matter with them."

Ash sighed and said, "Even if that _is_ true, the Kanto Courts overturned the ruling of the Kalos League."

"That…can be dealt with."

"What do you mean _dealt with_?"

"Will you do it or won't you?"

Ash sighed and said, "I suppose. It certainly beats sitting around here day in, day out, thinking over everything that I did wrong."

"Good. Then I want you to meet me at Pallet Town Port in three hours."

"Three hours! Isn't that a little soon?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid that there is little time to waste."

"Alright, sure. Three hours it is," Ash said, hanging up on Lance. He called out, "Mum, I'm going to meet someone at the port, okay?"

"Sure thing honey!" Delia called out.

Ash then ran up to his room and threw some clothes into a backpack and quickly changed into his travelling clothes, which were now blue jeans, a black shirt polo shirt and a royal blue trench coat. Ash then bolted back downstairs, calling out, "See ya!" to his mother as he ran out the front door, surprising her when she saw what he was wearing.

Delia thought, ' _Well, I guess he's off again,_ ' and sighed in regret at having her son's extended stay cut short.

Ash wasted no time in going to Professor Oaks Lab and retrieving six of his pokémon. He bade the professor farewell as he released his new, shiny, Charizard and hopped on her back, and flew to Pallet Town Port.

XXXXX

When Ash got to Pallet Town Port he found Lance already waiting for him, which surprised him as he had gotten there half an hour early. He landed in front of Lance and dismounted, leaving Charizard out, in case she was needed. He said, "Hey," and nodded at Lance.

Lance nodded and said, "Ash."

"So, what do I do?"

"Before that, I'm sorry about this, but I'm going to have to revoke your trainer license."

"You're _what_?" Ash demanded, his eyes glowing with a blue energy as Pikachu's cheeks started to spark on his shoulder.

"Ash. Please, understand, this _has_ to happen."

" _Why?_ "

"You are a very famous trainer Ash. Equally famous are your speeches about trusting in your pokémon and their abilities. Without a _very_ good reason there would be no reason for Team Magma to even consider letting you join them." Ash shrugged, admitting that there was probably some truth in what Lance was saying. "So what I am going to have to do now will probably seem excessively cruel."

"What? What do you mean?"

Lance sighed. "Ash, you're going to have to give me all of your pokémon."

"What!?" Ash exclaimed, an intense anger washing over him. If it's massive roar was any indication, Charizard also felt.

"If your trainer's license has been revoked, you cannot very well keep all of your pokémon now, can you?"

Ash sighed and said, "I suppose not," reluctantly taking his pokébelt off. He said, "Make sure they get back to Professor Oak," and flung it to Charizard.

"You're going to take this ticket and spend every night getting drunk until you reach Oldale Town in the Hoenn Region. Then, when you're there you are going to go to The Drunken Rapidash and get well and truly sloshed, then spend the night in the alley next to it. If all goes well then you should end up meeting someone from Team Magma there. If not, then do it again and again until you do."

"The Drunken Rapidash?"

"Yes. It's a bar in Lilycove City, the ship's first stop in the Hoenn Mainland. It should make a couple of stops in Johto and on the A-B-C Islands too, but _that_ is where you will miss the ship when it leaves."

"So that's it?"

"Pretty much, and the louder you are about your misery, the better."

"I see," Ash said, taking the ticket.

Before Ash could walk off, Lance said, "Don't worry too much Ash. If _we_ are aware of this here in the Kanto Region, I find it very difficult to believe that those in the League over there that _aren't_ in bed with Team Aqua are completely unaware of what it going on within their own region."

"What's your point? That means that they still aren't doing anything about it."

"You'll probably find that they _are_ , or at least trying to in a way that wouldn't alert their colleagues that they know. After all, with something like this, it would be very easy to try and turn to someone that you thought was on the same side as you, and find out that they _weren't_. That means that you are likely to have _multiple_ allies there, however you won't know that you can trust them, or them that they can trust you, until either you, or they, do something clearly against the interests of Team Magma."

"Alright. Thanks Lance," Ash said, and rubbed Pikachu's electric sacks before letting it leap to Charizard's shoulder before heading to the ship.

Pikachu let out a mournful cry as it saw Ash walk away. Lance calmed it down somewhat by saying, "Don't worry Pikachu, I'm sure that he'll be fine. After all, despite his recent spate of bad luck, he _is_ still one of the strongest trainers in _this_ region. And that's saying something."

XXXXX

After a week that Ash didn't remember he woke up, groaning. When he opened his eyes he forced them shut tight, exclaiming in pain, the light too bright for his beer-addled mind. He heard a female voice say, "I would advise against trying to open your eyes for some time yet."

Ash kept his eyes closed as he asked, "Whr 'm I?"

The voice said, "You were passed out in an alley next to The Drunken Rapidash. We brought you here to rest and recover. You've been having a rough time of it since _that_ happened, haven't you?"

"D'nt wunna tu'k 'bout't."

"I see. Well, be that as it may, there is someone that wants to meet you."

"Hu?"

"Well, you'll find out later, _after_ you are over your hangover."

"'S'at W'at des'r'?"

"Yes; and a ripper of a one by the sounds of it." Ash groaned. "Well, just give it a few minutes...or hours, and you'll get over it."

A few hours later the woman came back in to find that Ash was now sitting up on the bed, looking around for his shirt...and pants for that matter. When the woman came in he said, "Uhh, thanks for bringing me in 'n' all, but..."

"What happened to your clothes?"

"Yeah."

"Well, when we found you your clothes reeked of alcohol. So we had to take them off you before putting you to bed. Speaking of which, you really should have a shower before you meet Courtney."

"Courtney?"

"Yes. The Magma Admin that is in charge of this facility."

"Magma? What's that got to do with anything? I mean, it is buried quite far underground."

"That is for her to tell you. For now, shower."

"Alright, but where?"

The woman said, "There is a bathroom in through that door," indicating a door on the left side of the room, "and a change of clothes in the other one," indicating an identical door on the right. "There is a towel on the rack in the bathroom. I'll come back when you are done." She then left the room.

About thirty minutes later Ash was done in the shower and dried off. He then left the bathroom and walked to the door on the opposite side of the room. He opened the door and found piles and piles of clothes, all of which were red. Ash gulped and shrugged as he said, "Ah well, I guess they like red here, don't they?" He rummaged through them all until he found what he deemed good enough to wear. He ended up wearing a red jacket with two pockets on either breast that fastened with push clips and one on the inside that fastened the same way, below which he wore a black t-shirt. He also found a pair of black pants and black shoes that fit him, that were stuffed under all of the red. The jacket also had a hood that could be stowed in a zippered compartment at the neck. Once he was dressed, Ash said, "Well, it'll do," and knocked on the door.

Soon enough the woman that had been tending to him opened the door and said, "Hello again. It's nice to see you when you don't reek of liquor."

"Uhh...thanks, I think."

"Now, if you'd follow me then I'll take you to Courtney." Ash followed the woman down a nondescript hallway. Somewhere near the end of the hallway she stopped and said, "If you'll go through here Courtney will see you momentarily," indicating a door on the left.

"Sure thing," Ash said, entering the room. When he had he saw that there was a simple table with two identical chairs on opposite sides. He sat shrugged and sat down in the closest one, not saying a word.

Ash didn't have to wait long until a girl that didn't seem to be much older than him, if she was, entered through the door that he had not long ago. She grunted and moved around the other side of the table to take the other seat. When she was seated she silently looked at Ash for about a minute. She sighed and said, "Okay, I'm going to play it straight. We would like you to work for us."

"Work for you? I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are."

"I see. Well then in that case, let me start from the beginning. We are Team Magma and we're seeking to protect the human race from Team Aqua's plans."

"What are they?"

"They want to wipe humanity off of the face of the earth using Kyogre's abilities."

"Okay, so how are you going to do that?"

"That is of no concern to you right now," Courtney said, unwilling to divulge such secrets to a recruit that hadn't even accepted their offer yet.

"Suppose I refuse and try to stop them on my own?"

"An interesting proposition. But I wonder, just how would you go about doing that? I mean, your licence _was_ revoked after all, so all of your pokémon were stripped from you by the Pokémon League."

"Oh, right," Ash said dejectedly. Feigning drunken forgetfulness.

"In any case, if you agree to work with us we have ways of allowing you to work with pokémon once more. That said, you still wouldn't be able to compete in any official competitions. However I get the sense that you were just using those competitions to get stronger for some reason. Otherwise you would not have disappeared off of the proverbial map for so long."

Ash sighed and said, "You're not wrong. My ultimate goal was to become a Pokémon Master," he scoffed, "Not that that is likely to happen anymore."

"Well, there _are_ many ways to achieve _that_ goal."

"Really?" Ash asked, this time not needing to feign anything due to his genuine curiosity.

Courtney thought, ' _I've got him._ ' She said, "Your Professor Oak is considered a Pokémon Master far and wide just for his knowledge about pokémon. Brock Harrison of Pewter City is considered as to being on the brink of achieving masterdom as well. So, as you can see, there are other methods of achieving that goal. We in Team Magma _could_ assist you in your goal, of course, you would, in turn, need to assist us in ours."

"I see," Ash said. "I find these terms...amenable."

"Great!" Courtney exclaimed, things having gone far easier than she could have hoped. "But before we can get to _that,_ we will need you to undertake some training so that you can fit in to our organisation. After all, we wouldn't want the others to think that you are getting special treatment."

Ash shrugged and said, "Fair enough."

With Ash's agreement, Courtney said, "Good. Now, with that over, I'd like you to go back to the room that you were in when you woke up and stay there until someone comes and gets you."

"Alright," Ash said, getting up from his seat and leaving the room. He headed straight to his room.

Courtney followed Ash from the room, but, as soon as he had exited it, she said to her assistant, who had just come out of the next room on the right, and said, "Keep an eye on him."

"Yes sir," her assistant said.

Courtney sighed and said, "How many times do I need to tell you Wendy, we basically grew up together so you can call me Courtney."

Wendy said, "As always, once more than last until I become an Admin," causing her friend to sigh, not for the first time regretting her promotion.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Please review people, it helps keep the creative juices flowing, and me interested in continuing on with this story.


	2. Training Differences

When Ash got back to his room he sat on the floor and crossed his legs. Then he closed his eyes and let all thoughts flow away, leaving a state of serene clarity. He stayed like that until a guy came and got him. When the guy entered the room he asked, "What the hell're you doing?"

Ash opened his eyes and said, "Meditating. Why?"

"Medi-what now?"

"Meditate. It's when you enter a state of complete calm and everything is clear. But that doesn't really matter, does it?"

"No, though you might not have any time for such things in the near future."

"Why?"

"Because, you'll start training physical training at nine o'clock and do it continuously for three hours. Then you are given a one hour break before another three hours, this one with specialised training."

"Oh? Specialised in what?"

"The first hour is battle training, though I doubt that someone with your record will need it, so you can do whatever you want during that time. After that, testing drills to see where you fit in the organisation, and what skills you will still need. That testing phase continues until the end of seven days after you arrive, then that last bit changes to skills teaching, then there is half an hour a day of theory. That continues on for about a month until there is a final skills assessment when the final decision of whether we accept you or not takes place."

"Theory?"

"Yeah. It's basic history of Team Magma and our objectives."

"Okay, so where are we headed now?"

"To get you your pokémon," the man said, smirking at the eager look on Ash's face, thinking that he would soon be another devoted follower of Team Magma's doctrine.

When he heard what they were doing Ash thought, ' _Finally, we get to the good part. I wonder what they have in store for me. In the past the Team Magma Grunts mainly used Zubat and Poochyena or Mightyena. But Lance said that it has changed management since then, so it might be different now._ ' Ash asked, "So, what pokémon do you have available?"

"It's not what's available. The highest ranked member of Team Magma at the facility decides the pokémon that are given to trainees and right now that is Courtney. As to what she has decided to give you, only those in that department are aware of."

"I see," Ash said, continuing to follow the guy in silence.

Soon enough they went through a door that led to a room that was really rather bare, only having a hole in the wall that had someone standing behind it, like a desk. They went up to it and the man with Ash said, "We're here to get some pokémon for the newbie."

"Right," a woman behind the desk said. "Courtney told us that we might have a new one last night." She then rummaged around under the desk before putting two black and yellow pokéballs that had dark red M's on the black part, on the desk. "There you go, one Noibat and one Liepard."

Ash said, "Thanks," before following the guide back out of the room.

The man led Ash outside and said, "Over there. There're the other trainees over there," nodding his head in the direction of a series of pokémon battlefields of various types. Go and talk to the training officer and she'll tell you what to do from there."

"Sure thing," Ash said, leaving the guy that had been leading him through the base.

When Ash reached the battlefields he went to who he had to assume was the leader due to her not standing in a trainers box. The woman said, "So, you're Courtney's latest then?"

"Uhh...excuse me?" Ash asked, not getting what the woman was driving at.

"Well, it doesn't matter. She then looked to the side and said, "Adria." A girl, about Ash's age walked up to the trainer. "Adria. See if you can't work with this one."

Ash thought, ' _Does she think I'm defective or something?_ '

The green haired girl, Adria, said, "Sure," arrogant boredom in her tone. She yawned as she said, "Come on, this way," flicking her hand back and forth.

Adria led Ash to one of the unoccupied, in-ground, water fields. She moved to the far side and yawned again as she lazily said, "Alright, let's get this over with," rubbing one of her eyes, wanting to get it over so she could go back to sleep. Ash's eye started to twitch as he moved to the closer trainer box. Adria said, "Go Crawdaunt," as she thought, ' _If I get this done with quick, maybe I can finish that level before it runs out of power._ '

Ash thought, ' _Crawdaunt huh? I guess she thought that choosing this field would give her some kind of advantage. Well, we'll just have to see about that._ ' He said, "I choose you, Noibat!"

Adria said, "Crawdaunt, use Razor Shell."

Crawdaunt held its claw out to the side and water coalesced around it, extending from it to create a blade. It then raced at Noibat, who was flapping its wings above the water. As Crawdaunt came on, Ash thought, ' _That Razor Shell's bigger than Dewott's is. So Crawdaunt's ability is probably..._ '

As Crawdaunt closed in on Ash's Noibat, Adria thought, ' _Hn. Like I thought, just another loser wannabe._ '

Ash waited until Crawdaunt was closer to Noibat before he said, "Use Double Team." As Crawdaunt sliced down on Noibat, instead of connecting in any way, shape, or form, it just sliced straight through. It looked about wildly as Ash said, "Use Brick Break!"

Noibat's wings glowed white as Adria called out, "Crawdaunt! Behind you!" but it was too late as Noibat brought its wing down on Crawdaunt. Crawdaunt was plunged down into the water, the attack, while it was still powerful, lost a lot of the force due to there being no ground underneath. Adria called out, "Crawdaunt!" looking down into the water to see if it was alright.

As Adria grew concerned over Crawdaunt, Ash thought, ' _There's no way that that thing was knocked out by that. It's only backed up by the fact that it hasn't surfaced yet._ ' He said, "Noibat use your senses to find out where Crawdaunt is and use Dark Pulse." Noibat flew over above the water, twitching its ears in its search for Crawdaunt. It didn't take long to find where it was hiding and did as ordered, firing a beam of dark energy at the water."

About ten seconds later Crawdaunt burst from the water, having received no instructions from Adria, who was still trying to see through the water, swinging its claw, which had water swirling around it, at Noibat. Ash was having none of that though, and said, "Noibat, dodge it and use Brick Break again."

Adria called out, "No! Stop Crabhammer and use Water Pulse Crawdaunt!"

"Fine," Ash said, "forget dodging." Noibat flew straight at Crawdaunt, who had stopped the water swirling around his claw, instead gathering water in front of it. When Noibat was close enough, Ash said, "Hit the claw!" Noibat did as ordered and hit the claw that was gathering energy for the Water Pulse away from it, which caused the Water Pulse to fly away. Ash said, "Now use Shadow Claw!" and Noibat slashed the arm that had Crawdaunt had been using for all of its attacks. Crawdaunt's claw was hanging limply at its side as Ash said, "Give up," to Adria, his stare hard.

"No way! You can keep going Crawdaunt, can't you?" Adria said, concern in her voice at the end. Crawdaunt nodded its conviction to keep on battling to Adria.

Ash said, "It _can_ keep on battling Adria, but do you think that it's worth it?"

"Nngg!" Adria said, fighting with her desire to continue on battling to prove Crawdaunt was the strongest pokémon of the lot of them. In the end, Ash stopped it when she was taking too long and telling Noibat to finish it. Adria said, "No!" reaching out to Ash as if it would somehow change the result. It didn't, but Ash stopped Noibat anyway. Adria dropped to her knees and sighed with relief as Crawdaunt swam over to her and climbed out of the water field, letting Adria hug it.

As Ash was noting the similarities between Adria and himself, the two trainees heard a voice yell, " _What was that?!_ " and both simultaneously looked for the source. It was the, clearly angry, instructor as she marched through every single one of the fields, stopping each battle in her wake.

When the Training Officer was close enough, Ash asked, "We're you talking to us?"

" _Yes. I was talking to you!_ _Why_ didn't _you_ finish Crawdaunt off at the end? And you, _Adria_ , how could you beg an opponent for anything? _"_

Adria said, "I..."

But Ash interrupted her before she could say anything in her defence. He said, "Now see here. She didn't _beg_ me to do anything. I offered her a chance to prevent her pokémon from suffering from more damage than it need take, and, like any _true_ trainer should, she chose to take that chance."

"This is _Team Magma._ Here we train to _defeat_ our foes, not hold their hands."

"I don't doubt it," Ash said, "and I'll do everything I can to beat whoever it is I'm battling against. But _this..._ " Ash pointed at his feet, "...it's just practice."

"It's just..." the training officer said, pressing her lips together in anger. "Fine. If that's what you think, then take a stand in Eric's box over there," nodding at trainers box of grass field that she was on.

Ash sighed and shrugged as he helplessly said, "Fine," and walked to the trainers box that he was told to go to.

When he got there the training officer said, "Now, send out your other pokémon."

"Okay," Ash said. He scratched his head as he thought, ' _Hmm...I probably shouldn't beat her too badly, should I?_ ' Ash shrugged and said, "Well, here goes. I choose you, Liepard."

The training officer thought, ' _Dark Type, like I thought._ ' She said, "In that case, I'll go with Breloom."

Ash said, "Breloom huh?" not entirely surprised that the person accosting him would make such a choice, given what he had been forced to pick. Ash thought, ' _Okay, restraint, out the window,'_ as he focused on Breloom.

There were whispers of, 'He's fighting Teacher Erica?' and 'That's hardly a fair matchup.' Erica ignored the loud whispers and said, "Alright everyone, shut up and gather around this field. I'll show you what it takes to battle alongside Team Magma." The trainees stopped standing and staring and walked over to stand on the edge of the field that their training officer was 'teaching' on.

When they were all there, Erica said, "Now, you can go first greenhorn."

Ash's eye started to twitch as he said, "No no, that's fine. You can go first. The elderly need all the help that they can get."

"The...!" you could almost see steam billowing from the woman's ears. "You're _done!_ Breloom! Use Mach Punch!"

Breloom's hand started to glow white as it quickly crossed the distance between it and Liepard. Ash took note of the rate of its ground coverage and said, "Liepard, dodge to the right." Liepard launched itself to the right, away from Breloom, but it still took a grazing hit from it. Ash thought, ' _So, not fast enough from that distance. Despite this 'Erica's' bad attitude, she seems to take care of her_ own _pokémon well enough._ ' He cracked his neck as he said, "Well, it's fast. I'll give it that much at least."

Erica thought, _'He'll give it...Right. I was just going to destroy him. Now I'll need to humiliate him along the way._ ' "Breloom, use Mind Reader."

Ash thought, ' _Mind Reader? Well, this' going to be even easier than I thought,'_ as Breloom placed its hands on the side of its mushroom hat and a pair of sharp, burning, indigo eyes appeared in the air above it. Ash said, "Wow! That's so cool!" echoing sentiments that were being passed around throughout the other students.

Erica grunted as her lips twisted down in disgust. From her prone position next to Crawdaunt, Adria looked confused. She thought, ' _What in the...? He's not acting anything like how he was when he was battling me! First he insults sensei, then he...huh?_ '

Erica said, "I'm sure that you would think so. Mind Reader is one of the greatest fighting type techniques that can be taught! Those that can use are very rare as it is only taught at the fighting dojo in the Orre Region and..."

Her diatribe was interrupted by Ash saying, "Use Thunder Wave."

Erica heard some crackling before she saw a bright yellow bolt of electricity heading for Breloom. Her face transformed into shocked rage at realising what her 'student' had done. Adria thought, ' _Okay, that's more like how he was when he fought me._ '

Erica said, "How dare you!"

Ash said, "You talk too much. Besides, most of it was lies."

"Excuse me?!" Erica demanded as the students started to talk amongst themselves.

"Mind Reader _can't_ be _taught_ , in the Orre Region or anywhere else. It can only be _bred_ onto a pokémon or _learned_ naturally; and it certainly _isn't_ a Fighting Type move, it's a Normal Type one. Granted, it's used by predominantly fighting types but, eh, who's counting."

"I'm from the Orre Region."

"Well, bully for you, but I've had multiple pokémon that have had access to that particular move, none of which were from the Orre Region. Now, are we going to continue this battle, or are you going to try to lie me to defeat?"

Erica grunted and said, "You asked for it, kid."

Ash said, "Before that though, would you allow me to say something to my cohorts?"

"I suppose."

Ash looked around the sides of the field and said, "There is only one reason that someone uses a move like Mind Reader..."

Erica thought, ' _What?! He can't know what I'm about to...'_

"...and that is because their next move is hit or miss."

Erica grunted as she thought, ' _That was true, once. But that was a long time ago._ ' "Use Focus Punch." Breloom's fist started glowing before it started charging forward.

Ash thought, ' _Focus Punch? Well, strong moves like that do meet the bill at first. But with the speed that it activated it, it's been a while since it mastered it. But, like I thought, its normal speed pales in comparison to what it was when it used Mach Punch earlier._ ' Ash said, "Duck," and Liepard ducked down, Breloom's fist moving over Liepard's head and back, barely missing it. "Now, use Iron Tail."

Liepard's tail took on a metallic sheen and it sprung into the air, back-flipping to hit Breloom's mushroom hat. It knocked Breloom from its feet and Erica gasped, "No!"

Ash said, "Now, use Shadow Ball," while Liepard was still in the air. Liepard extended a paw and a ball of ghostly energy appeared at the tip of its claw. It threw the ball at Breloom, hitting it square in its chest, knocking it to the ground. "Now, pin it with Shadow Claw." A ghostly energy surrounded Liepard's two front claws as it landed on Breloom's chest, pinning it by its arms to the ground. ' _Now, Erica, what will you do?_ '

Erica was no longer just angry. No, now she was furious. The upstart opposite her told her that she was wrong in front of her class, he outright called her a liar, and now he only was humiliating her further. She said, "Breloom, use Energy Ball." Breloom quickly gathered energy at its mouth and shot the ball of energy at Liepard, but it wasn't quick enough, giving Ash more than enough time to call Liepard away from it. Breloom pushed itself up off the ground, rubbing at its shoulders. "Now, use Mach Punch, back to back." Breloom raced at Liepard with both of it s fists glowing white.

As Breloom came towards Liepard, Ash said, "Okay Liepard, just focus on dodging in the direction that I tell you for now." Liepard glanced at Ash and nodded. Then it focused back on its oncoming opponent.

"Focus on _dodging_?" Erica laughed. "You _must_ be joking," Erica said. "Cowards are unnecessary in the ranks of Team Magma." Ash idly noted Erica's words as he kept calling directions to Liepard. "Do you see? No matter how well you evade my attacks. If you don't land any of your own, then what's the point. Actually, even if you did, because of Breloom's typing, the moves that it _does_ know won't do too much."

Ash sighed and said, "You know, you really _do_ talk too much."

"What was that?"

"I've never quite been able to get my head around why some people try and brute force their way through situations."

"Excuse me?" Erica said as sparks burst from Breloom's body and its attacks stopped. "Huh? What just...?"

"Like I said. You _do_ remember that I used Thunder Wave earlier, right? Liepard, use Shadow Ball." Liepard shot a shadow ball from its mouth.

"Use Mach Punch!"

"Dodge right. And then use Shadow Claw." Liepard jumped to the right and then leapt forward, all of its claws glowing with ghostly energy. It slashed Breloom's face with its left foreclaw, and then pushed off its shoulder with its both of its hindclaws, giving it enough room to enact any of its trainer's orders should they go beyond dodging. Ash said, "The difference between Adria and I, is experience. The difference between _you_ and I, is like that of heaven and earth."

When Adria heard Ash's words she thought, ' _The difference between us,...?_ ' she cocked her head and thought of the way that she battled as opposed to the approach that Erica always took into battles. She shrugged and thought, ' _He may have a point._ '

" _Excuse me?_ What has _that_ got to do with anything?"

"Isn't that the whole reason that we're having this battle? I get that you like to force your way into, and out of, whatever situation you deem best, but look what happens as a result of that."

"What happens? What are you..." then she saw how heavily Breloom was breathing and how it had its hand on its thigh.

"Now, I'll give you the same option that I gave Adria. Give up."

"Give up?" Erica started letting out a deranged laughter. "You _must_ be joking. You _clearly_ still don't know who you're dealing with."

Ash raised his eyebrow, and said, "Oh. I'm sorry." Ash blinked. "I thought that I was battling against a Team Magma Instructor?" Ash saw Erica's hands disappear around her back and thought, ' _Is she going to...?_ ' Then he saw her quickly point a pokèball at Breloom and said, "Use Pursuit." Liepard was surrounded by a black energy and it charged at Breloom and slammed into it just as it was consumed by a red energy, which knocked it away from the red 'returning' beam, leaving it unconscious on the ground.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Please review people, it helps keep the creative juices flowing, and me interested in continuing on with this story.


	3. Team Training

The students gathered around the field started talking amongst each other, not quite able to believe that the newest recruit could not only defeat Erica, but manage to destroy her completely. Which lead them to question, one, who the newcomer was, and two, why they were listening to Erica anyway.

Ash asked, "Are we done now?"

Erica growled and said, "Return, Breloom, go Magmar, Crobat," returning Breloom at the same time as she threw the other two pokéballs that she was holding into the air.

Ash raised his eyebrow and said, "So, when you can't beat me fair and square, you resort to this?"

"Within Team Magma there are no rules. There is also no room for honour or ideals. All that matters, are results."

Ash sighed and said, "That's rubbish."

"What was that?"

"When there are grand goals involved, there _must_ be an ideal behind it. Otherwise there would be no purpose in the undertaking. Results come after that."

"You think that you can lecture _me?_ Magmar, use Sunny Day!" Magmar brought its hands together and expanded them, a bright orb generating in the space between them. When it was as big as it needed to be, Magmar shot it skyward. When it was about five metres above the ground, it exploded, causing a bright light to shine over the field.

Ash grunted as he thought, ' _Well that's just great, isn't it?_ '

"Crobat, use Air Cutter." Crobat flapped its four wings in the direction of Liepard and multiple blue x-shaped blades shot in its direction.

Ash said, "Liepard, use Shadow Claw." Liepard's two front claws glowed with the ghostly energy that they had done before and it stood up on its hind legs. It slashed the air blades from the sky, showering it in blue particles. He heard Erica tell Magmar to use Lava Plume and said, "Liepard, run to the right." But the attack just followed it. Even so though, Liepard was too fast and kept on moving, circling around Magmar. It kept ahead of the attack with pure speed.

Erica grunted and thought, ' _Magmar is too slow to keep up with Liepard._ ' She said, "Crobat, use Poison Fang." Crobat crossed over the lava and bit into Liepard, who was too slow to avoid it. It flinched from the pain, but that was it.

Ash grunted, thinking, ' _It's quick, maybe even quicker than Liepard. Which means that I'm going to have to keep on moving…again._ ' "Liepard, keep that up for now." Liepard made a sound of agreement and started running around the field, but this time on Erica's side.

Erica said, "Magmar, use Power-Up Punch!" Magmar's fisted were surrounded by a multi-coloured energy as it slowly ran at Liepard. When it was close enough, it swung down at Liepard, but missed by far. Unfortunately, Crobat was there to back it up, hitting it with a purple 'X' on its side, sending it skidding back, but it still wasn't poisoned.

Ash grunted as he thought, ' _This' going nowhere. I need another Pokémon, but Noibat is nowhere_ near _strong enough to compete against that crazy woman's Crobat._ ' He looked at Adria and thought, ' _Well, it's worth a shot._ ' He said, "Adria, I could use a hand here."

Adria thought, ' _He could…hmm…well, he's not wrong. Liepard is good to go against Magmar alone, Crobat too probably, but when they are working together, they're just too strong._ ' She shrugged and said, "Well, she did want us to partner up anyway," and stood up, crossing the distance to the trainer box to stand next to Ash. She asked, "How do you want to do this?"

"We just met, so it's probably better if we do this individually."

"Right, so I'll take Crobat then?"

"Yeah. It's just too fast for Liepard."

"Okay. In that case I have a Pokémon that should be able to keep up, but you'll need to keep Magmar's attention away from it.

"Alright," Ash said, getting ready to gain Magmar's attention once Adria had called out her pokémon.

Adria said, "Go, Weavile!" throwing a pokéball out, over the field. It bounced back into her hand once Weavile had been released.

Ash thought, ' _Weavile huh? Well, that explains why she wants me to keep Magmar busy._ '

After Adria released Weavile Erica demanded, "What are you doing Adria?"

"I don't like how you're acting Erica-sensei. You need to be stopped," Adria coldly said.

"Hn. You say that like you think that _you_ could stop _me_."

Adria sighed and said, "I can and I will."

"How can you have the gumption to think, let alone say, something like that after what you just did?"

"Pokémon. Working together, playing together, _learning_ together. That is how the bond between trainer and Pokémon works."

"Human and Pokémon working together? Ridiculous. Pokémon exist only to serve."

Ash said, "So, you're one of _them_?"

Erica said, "Magmar, use Fire Blast on Weavile; Crobat, use Cross Poison on Liepard," wanting to force the two trainees into her pace. Magmar opened its mouth to shoot the most powerful fire type attack that it knew at Adria's Weavile while Crobat shot a poison 'X' at Liepard.

Ash and Adria weren't having any of it though, as they said, "Weavile, use Ice Beam!" and, "Liepard, use Iron Tail!" That caused both Pokémon to move at once, Weavile quickly gathering enough energy in front of it to launch an intercepting Ice Beam at the poison X's flying straight at Liepard, whose tail now possessed a metallic sheen. It reached Magmar just as it shot the fire attack at Weavile and sprung into a backflip, hitting Magmar's mouth, simulating an uppercut, forcing its head up, and the fire attack to shoot into the sky.

Once Magmar's fire had stopped, Erica said, "Use Power-Up Punch." Magmar's fist glowed red as it punched without looking at where it thought that Liepard was.

Ash called out, "Liepard, to the right," causing it to spring to the right. "Now, Shadow Claw." Liepard leapt up, and hit Magmar on its chin exactly where it had hit it with its tail.

As Magmar was forced to look at the sky again, a fire lit behind Magmar's eyes. When it recovered it looked straight at where Liepard was, about three metres away from it, and focused solely on it. Which is why it didn't understand why Erica called out, "Magmar! Jump back and use Incinerate." Instead, it charged the attack where it was, which caused it to collapse on the ground, unconscious from the Night Slash delivered by Weavile that hit it exactly where the last two attacks had hit.

Unlike Liepard had done, Weavile used Magmar's shoulder to spring into the air, towards Crobat. Seeing what her Pokémon had done, Adria called out, "Weavile, use Ice Punch!"

Crobat didn't want to get hit by the attack that it knew would be super effective so it didn't wait for an order from its trainer to move away, but it didn't help any because at that instant it was hit by an electrical current that stopped it from moving. Weavile's Ice Punch hit, sending it into blissful unconsciousness. The students looked amongst themselves, not knowing what to say about what just happened, an affliction that Courtney didn't suffer as she came over and demanded, " _What_ is going on here?" having been told about the students gathering around one field by an assistant.

Teacher Erica looked at Courtney and said, "C…C…Courtney! I…uh…was trying to teach that pair a lesson," pointing at Ash and Adria.

Courtney looked at where Erica was pointing and sighed and said, "So, let me get this straight. You were trying to force someone that has reached the Top Eight in multiple Regional Leagues, and someone who has trained under Koga into…what exactly?"

"I was…Huhh?"

"Yeah, Ash Ketchum and Adria Hanley. How could you have not recognised them?" Courtney sighed and covered her eyes as she said, "Look, how many times have I told you that…no." Then she addressed the class, "All of you trainees, there are many different types of battle and strategies that you can use within Team Magma. There are no inherently wrong ones, despite what Erica may have told you. The ultimate goal is victory, but how you get there is up to you." She thought, ' _Hopefully that will be enough to keep those two onside,_ ' as she looked at Ash and Adria. She sighed and said, "I fear that I must apologise on Erica's behalf, if there is anything that I can do to make up for her foolish mistake?"

Ash said, "For me? Not at the moment."

Adria shrugged and said, "Likewise."

"Very well then," Courtney nodded. She then said, "If you would all proceed to your next session…" and went back to her office.

While they moved to their next session, Adria said, "So, Top Eight eh?"

"Trained under Koga huh?" Ash shot back.

XXXXX

The rest of the day was kind of a blur for Ash, as he didn't really see too much purpose in knowing how to pick locks or being able to identify the signs that indicate a hidden security system of some sort. After the last class of the day, they were told that dinner was at six thirty in the mess hall and they had two hours to do whatever they wanted. When they were told that, Ash thought, ' _Okay, I_ want _to work with Noibat and Liepard, but I should probably go and meet my roommate, whoever that is._ ' So he walked back to his room, all the while being 'followed' by Adria.

Eventually, Ash stopped outside of his room and Adria stopped at the same time. He rounded on her and demanded, "Okay, just why are you following me?"

"I'm not following you," Adria said. "If anything, you're the one that's acting weird."

"How do you figure?"

"Well, this is _my_ room."

"Uh…thirty seven, right?"

"Yeah. Why are you…wait. You _must_ be joking."

Ash pulled out his keycard and showed it to Adria as he said, "If it is it's a pretty funny one."

Adria pulled her keycard out and held it up to Ash, revealing that indeed, both keys were for the same room. She sighed and said, "Well, looks like we're roomies as well as teammates."

"I guess so," Ash said, swiping his card to unlock the door. When it had been done, he entered, followed by Adria. Ash asked, "So, which one's yours?"

"That one," Adria said, nodding to the bed that had slightly less than red sheets.

Ash said, "Then this one's mine, and walked over to it and placed his pokéballs on the bedside table. He then sat on the side of his bed and said, "So, anything you want to know about me?"

"Sure, why are you joining Team Magma?"

"My licence was revoked and all of my Pokémon taken from me. Team Magma gives me the ability to work alongside Pokémon once more. If their activities bend the rules a bit, well…so be it."

"How did your licence get revoked?"

Ash snorted and said, "The second to last gym that I competed against in the Kalos Region said that I cheated in our match."

" _You?_ " Adria derisively said, as everything that she had seen thus far told her that Ash was honourable to a fault.

"Yeah," Ash sighed, "apparently it is illegal to blitz a Psychic Type Gym with a Fighting Type."

"You…" Adria laughed half-heartedly. "How'd you manage that?"

"Well, I trained Lucario as an all-rounder. Of course, that included teaching her Psychic too."

"A fighting type can learn psychic?"

"Yeah. It's actually not all that uncommon really. Poliwrath, Meditite, Medicham and Gallade can all learn it."

"Huh, well what d'you know?"

"So, how about you?"

"Well, I trained under Koga until I was fifteen, so I never actually got the chance to get a Pokémon Trainer Licence, even though I had been training pokémon for quite some time. So, when I went to challenge a gym…"

"Training without a licence," Ash stated, remembering coming across an overeager Officer Jenny when he had just started out on his own journey.

"Yeah, how'd you…"

"First day after I got my first pokémon I managed to piss off a bunch of Spearow and they attacked me time and again on my way to Viridian City, causing Pikachu to have to expend almost all of its electricity to save us."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"How'd you manage to anger Spearow on your first day?"

"I'd…rather not talk about _that_ part of the story, if that's alright."

Adria shrugged and said, "Sure, I guess," her curiosity rising, resolving to find out what happened, come what may.

"In any case, when I got to Viridian City I found out that some pokémon thieves had been operating in the area and when an Officer Jenny saw the condition that Pikachu was in, she jumped to the conclusion that I was one of them and asked me to prove that I was an actual trainer."

"I see. Who'd' would've thought it, the great Ash Ketchum, suspected pokémon thief," Adria laughingly said.

"Yeah, thinking back now, it is pretty funny. But it sure wasn't at the time."

"Yeah, I bet it wasn't."

"So, how'd you meet Koga?"

"Oh, that's easy. My mother trained under the same master that Koga had in pokémon jujitsu in the Johto Region and taught me a lot of cool stuff, but then she went off and left me at Koga's ninja mansion."

"Wait. Then why didn't I see you there when I went to challenge him for a Soul Badge?"

"You probably got there on one of the days that I spent training with Koga's daughter in the mountains."

"I see. I guess that makes sense. Wait, is his daughter Aya? Because I know that _she_ was there at the time."

"No, Aya's his sister."

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed. Heck, even now that you've told me, I _still_ can't believe it."

"Yeah, she does leave that impression, but I assure you, she _is_ strong. Maybe not as strong as Janine or me, but even so."

"Janine?"

"His daughter. I believe that she recently took over as Fuchsia City Gym Leader."

"Really? What happened to Koga?"

"Who knows? The last I knew he was going off on a training journey of his own."

"I see," Ash said, "that's too bad."

"Too bad?"

"Yeah. I'd have liked to battle him at least one more time."

"Why's that?"

"Because, he was one of the toughest trainers that I fought when I was aiming for the Indigo League. And the first gym leader that I could actually battle the whole way through without any interruptions."

"What does _that_ mean?"

"Well, I lost against brock because all I had was Pikachu and a Pidgeotto. Then I went off and trained to increase Pikachu's power output, but only won only after the sprinklers coated Onix water. I refused the badge, but he gave it to me anyway and travelled around with me on and off for a few years."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. For my Cascade Badge, I fought against someone I'd been travelling with for some time and Pikachu had developed a bond with, so he decided to disobey me and not fight against her, leaving me with Butterfree and Pidgeotto. Then Team Rocket came along, interrupted the battle and Pikachu blasted them with Thunderbolt and the three Senior Gym Leaders gave me the badge, telling their youngest sister that had Pikachu participated, she wouldn't have stood a chance."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Lt Surge, well, to be fair he was a tough one too, and did treat me to a full battle too. But Erika, she was just a pain." Ash shivered, remembering everything that he'd had to go through just because of one comment, no matter how true it was. Koga and Blaine were by far the best Gym Leaders that the Kanto Region had to offer at the time."

"Seriously! I thought that the gym in Viridian City was supposed to be tougher."

"Maybe, but that was when Giovanni was in charge. When I went to battle him he left a couple of his team rocket flunkies behind to take charge. Needless to say, they lost."

"Indeed. I didn't think that a pokémon journey could have been so…colourful."

"Heh," Ash smiled half-heartedly. "That's one way of putting it. Another would be reckless, foolish and truly pathetic."

"Hmm, well, you seemed to turn it around rather quickly if your record is anything to go by."

"Yeah, well, the Orange League helped a lot on that score."

"The Orange League? Never heard of it."

"It's the pokémon league of the Orange Islands. Though the gyms there are completely different to any of the mainland gyms."

"How so?"

"They have the challengers taking part in a series of…what really boils down to 'games', playing against the Gym Leader. Though they are all as tough as the mainland Gym Leaders."

' _Hm,_ ' Adria thought, ' _I'll have to take a trip down to the Orange Islands on my next holiday, see if they really are as strong as Ash says they are._ '

"Anyway, how long have you been a part of Team Magma?"

"Me? Hmm…about…five years?" Adria said. She paused before she said, "Wow, what d'you know? It doesn't even feel like one."

"Five years? And you're still a trainee?"

"Well, yes and no."

"Yes _and_ no?"

"Yeah. You see, 'training' actually only takes a couple of months, but then, to 'graduate', you need to be partnered up with someone. Unfortunately, everyone that they've tried to partner me up with before has been either too slow or too weak to keep up with me."

"I see," Ash said. "Then I hope that I can break the cycle."

Adria smiled and said, "Yeah. Me too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's getting really boring just sitting around here, waiting to be let out into the world. Though I suppose that it does have its perks."

"'Perks'?"

"Yeah. I get to go on holiday wherever, and almost whenever I like. From what I hear, the new boss is more of a slave driver on full members than on the trainees."

"Is that so?" Ash said.

"Yeah."

"So I guess you've met him then?"

"No, I only get to head the gossip because I went through training with Courtney."

"Courtney?"

"The Administrator that came into the training yard during our battle with Erica-sensei," Adria explained.

"Ah. What's she like?"

"She's one heck of a trainer. On top of that, she's tough, but fair, to her subordinates. That's part of why she was put in place as commander of this training camp."

"Part of it?"

"Yeah," Adria laughingly said. "The other part is to keep an eye on me."

"On you?"

"Yeah. You see I can be a little…on the difficult side when it comes to the new recruits."

"What do you mean?"

"I try to help them with their battle training, but I keep on _winning_. It's really quite unfortunate. That's why you saw me sitting on the side earlier."

"Ah."

"I like your outfit by the way."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. It's refreshing to see someone going against the grain after so long. The last one to do that was Courtney herself."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe we're a bit alike then."

Adria scoffed and said, "Trust me, the pair of you are like night and day."

"Really? How so?"

"Courtney is all about calculated moves. She considered things like instinct and guts truly abhorrent."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Not only that, based on your league results, I'd say that you're like me and happy to work with just about any pokémon, right?"

"Yeah, just about."

"Just about?"

"Tentacruel and Tentacool seem to have this habit of attacking me, or those I care about whenever I see them, so I try to avoid them as much as possible."

"I see. Fair enough then. But otherwise…?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Okay. Well, Courtney will only ever catch fire types that can learn steel type moves."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I've never been able to figure out exactly why. Though I suppose in the end it doesn't really matter that much."

"I guess not."

XXXXXXX

A/N

Please review people, it helps keep the creative juices flowing, and me interested in continuing on with this story.


	4. Norman's Dismay

Meanwhile, on Wailmer Island, standing before Matt, the new leader of Team Aqua, was a man wearing a pair of blue hiking pants and a blue leather ¾ jacket along with a pair of blue sneakers and blue fingerless leather gloves. Matt said, "So, you're the latest graduate, are you?"

"Yes sir," the man said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "What is my role to be?"

"Considering your situation, I think that I know the perfect role for you." The man raised an eyebrow. "Given who your father is, given your grades, you should be able to inform us on the movements of the pokémon league."

"You want me to spy on my own father?"

"Yes. Not only that though. We have something even better in mind that will better suit your…more well-known skills."

"Which would be…?"

"You travelled around this region even before you received your first pokémon, so you know the region very well," Aqua Leader Matt said. "On top of that, you have reached the final tournament in each pokémon league division that you have entered," putting a smirk on the man's face. "So we would like you to ostensibly go around and try to compete in the Hoenn League once more, but your true aim will be to run interference with any and all of Team Magma's operations."

"Would I be doing that whilst hiding my relation to our organisation?"

"It doesn't really matter as long as there is no-one else there to see you. If there is, I'd like you to try to avoid calling any attention to your status as a member of Team Aqua."

"Very well," the man said.

"Well, with that out of the way," he nodded at the items on his desk and said, "they're all yours."

The man said, "These are…"

"It's Team Aqua's latest pokébelt. It will hold six pokéballs and the button next to them is able to switch out the pokéballs of your 'regular' team with those from your 'Aqua' team. It already has six Team Aqua Balls on there with the Mightyena we gave you when we first started your training, and a Sharpedo. Those two together shall grant you access to most of our bases around the nation."

"What about outside of Hoenn?"

"No. We've only just started setting up shop in some of the other regions, but they have already chosen theirs."

"I see," the man said, picking up the belt. He threaded it through the belt loops of his pants, but he ran into a problem when he tried to buckle it up. He blinked, looking at the belt and saw the problem. There was no buckle. He looked up at his leader with a blank look on his face as if to say, ' _really_ '.

"Here," Aqua Leader Matt said, tossing the man something that flipped on its way through the air.

The man looked at it and raised an eyebrow as he turned it in his hand, to double check if what he had seen as it flipped over was indeed correct. It was. On one side of the belt, the background colour was blue with a white Team Aqua emblem. The background on the other side of it was left the natural greyish metal, but it had two purple five-ring concentric circles connected by a bar, signifying that he was a member of the Petalburg City Gym. He said, "So, is that all Leader?" as he placed the six Team Aqua pokéballs on his belt."

"Yes. My spies tell me that Team Magma recently gained a recruit that could potentially prove extremely troubling for us."

"Do you want me to do anything about this recruit?"

"No. just be aware that they are now a member of Team Magma and thus a threat to this world."

"Very well. Thank you for the advice," the man said, turning to move for the door.

"Oh yes. One more thing before you go Max."

"Yes?" Max said.

"My spies also told me that Team Magma is poking around at Camerupt Point. I'd like you to go there to see what exactly they are trying to do and then contact me from there."

"Alright," Max said, finally leaving the office of Aqua Leader Matt. Once he had, he headed to the room that he had been using for the past few months and transferred his six Team Aqua pokéballs out for his normal ones before he packed up his things and left the base. Once he was outside he reached behind his back, pulling a pokéball from his belt. He called out "I choose you, Flygon!" he then clambered up its back and said, "We've gotta go to Camerupt Point." Flygon let out a cry before it took off at breakneck speed.

Max, now used to his Flygon's undulating flight, actually managed to stay on its back for the full flight, this time. The landing…was a different story. When Flygon landed, it glided down to the ground and swung up so that it was 'standing' straight up in the air before it let itself fall a few feet to the ground, which caused Max to slip off of Flygon's back, with a great deal of force. Getting up from the ground, rubbing his arse, Max grumpily said, "Flygon return," and started muttering, It's great that it's flying smoother now, but apparently I've still got to work on those landings."

XXXXX

Meanwhile, in Petalburg Gym, May, on a break from challenging Regional Contests, was having breakfast when her father came in visibly distressed. She looked up and said, "What's wrong dad?"

Norman said, "It's…" and sighed. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you."

"What? Why not?" May asked, a look of real concern on her face as her father had never said that to her before, well, except when she was asking about Christmas presents.

"It's to do with my work with the Elite Four," Norman said, the look changing to reflect regret.

"I see," May said, laying down her cutlery, finishing off her breakfast. "Then can I help in any way?"

"May, it's too dangerous for you to be involved in this."

"Dad, who are you talking to? I'm not that weak girl that I was anymore. I _can_ help. No matter what it is. You know I can."

"I know that you think that. But just because you won the grand festival last year, doesn't mean that you can handle any situation by yourself any more than your brother can."

"Wait. What about my brother?"

May got a serious look on her face that Norman knew would turn into anger no matter what he said. So he said the only thing that he could think of to protect his daughter. "I'm sorry May, but you'd just get in the way."

Sure enough, May's transformed into rage personified, including a red aura around her that Norman had never seen before, her eyeballs glowing red. She said, "Father. How long has it been since we had a pokémon battle?"

"A…" Norman said, thinking back to the last one that they had, but, before he answered her question he asked, "May, what does _that_ have to do with anything."

May said, "I think that it's about time that we have another," reflecting more power than anyone, or anything, Norman had ever seen, or heard, before.

"May, I don't know what you're trying to prove by thi…" but May had already left the dining room to collect her pokéballs for the upcoming battle. Norman sighed and closed his eyes and hung his head. Norman went out to the greenhouse to see Caroline and said, "Caroline."

Caroline just said, "What is it?" sensing that Norman had just put his foot in it.

Norman sighed and said, "I just heard news about Max."

"Really?!" Caroline exclaimed, ecstatic to finally hear from her son after the three months that he hadn't been in contact with them. "Where is he? When is he coming home?"

"It's…not so simple as that," Norman said.

Caroline sighed and said, "It never is, is it?"

"No. Even so, this is more than the usual level of madness that usually comes our way."

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked.

"Max has gotten himself involved in something that is going to effect the entire country. Maybe even the world." A look of great concern came onto Caroline's face. Norman sighed and said, "It was a matter of right place, right time, right trainer."

A dark look then settled over her and she said, "What has our son done?"

"He hasn't done anything yet. I think."

"What do you mean you _think_?"

"Look, I don't know, okay!? I only found out from Wallace just now. Now May…" Norman sighed and looked down and to the right, unable to face his wife.

"May? What about May?" Caroline begged, clutching at Norman's arm.

Norman sighed and said, "I told her that she couldn't handle every situation, just like Max can't. From just that she figured that something was up with Max, but she doesn't know what. I tried to talk her out of it, but…"

"But? But what? She hasn't left already has she?"

"No. She's still here, but she's challenged me to a pokémon battle."

"She's…"

"Yeah, and there'll be a stipulation upon the completion of the battle too."

"Let me guess…"

"You don't need to. It's obvious what it'll be."

Caroline let out a heavy sigh and said, "Well dear, you _have_ always found it easier to talk through your pokémon."

Norman sighed and said, "Yes, but this is _May_ we're talking about here."

"Yes. It _is_. It's high time too."

"It's…"

Caroline sighed and said, "When was the last time that the two of you sat down together?"

"Well, that's easy it was just la…" then Norman started to frown and concentrate on remembering the last time that he had had a proper conversation with his daughter.

Caroline sighed and said, "See. If it wasn't this thing with Max, it would probably be something else that the pair of you would be fighting over right now." Caroline lightly pushed Norman as she said, "Now go, get ready, and let your pokémon talk." Norman sighed and nodded, firming his resolve to protect his daughter. Norman then went back into the house to get his pokémon.

When Norman went into the gym arena, he saw that May was already standing there, wearing a pair of tight black pants and a red tunic tied off with a wide black pokébelt. She wasn't wearing her normal bandanna, having abandoned it for this match, replacing it with a cavalier hat that had one side folded up. It had a silver feather attached to the brim by a red crystal. She was wearing a pair of black leather close-fit fingerless gloves that reached halfway to her elbow that had red strips running down the back, an angular simulacrum of the bones underneath, though they stopped before the fingers. She was also wearing a pair of black leather boots.

Norman blinked, shocked by his daughter's appearance almost as much as the look on her face that was telling him that she was ready to go. He sighed and said, "I'm going to give you one last chance to back out of this May."

"Call your first pokémon, father," May said in a disappointed tone.

Norman sighed and said, "Fine. We'll do this as a three on three pokémon battle where…"

"No," May said, cutting Norman off.

"What? What do you mean _no_? This is my gym, you can't…"

"This _isn't_ a gym challenge father. You questioned my ability to take care of myself. The only way we can deal with this is with a six on six full trainer battle. That means that we can both switch out our pokémon whenever we like."

"Do you _really_ want to do this?" Norman asked, giving May one last chance to back 's only answer was to reach behind her back for one of her pokéballs before throwing it out. Norman grunted and said, "Fine, go Staraptor!" throwing his pokéball out just before May's pokéball hit the ground and released what was inside _it._ Seeing what his daughter had chosen, Norman grunted and thought, ' _She's called Blaziken out already? She must be serious about this then._ ' He let out a breath that he didn't know that he'd been holding and looked at his daughter in a way that he'd never thought that he'd have to. As a challenger. He said, "Just remember May, you asked for this."

May scoffed and said, "You can say _that_ when this is over. Blaziken, use Sky Uppercut."

Blaziken ran towards Staraptor, its hand starting to glow white. As Blaziken rushed towards Staraptor, Norman thought, ' _Sky Uppercut? That's a fighting type attack. Why would she use it against Staraptor. She should be well aware that it will be completely ineffective, so why would she…well, it doesn't matter anyway._ ' Norman said, "Staraptor, dodge left and use Sky Attack!"

Staraptor dodged to the left of Blaziken's fist, as it had been commanded, and took on a white glow as it flew at Blaziken. May just said, " _Now_ , use Thunder Punch!" Blaziken's fist was surrounded by electricity and it brought it up under Staraptor's face just before it hit, knocking it up and to the side at the same time as it forced Blaziken down to the ground. Severe amounts of damage was inflicted to Staraptor while Blaziken came out scot free.

Norman scowled as he thought, ' _So, that Sky Uppercut was just to lure me in? That's not a contest move at all._ '

As Norman called out his next attack Caroline came in to see a look that hadn't been in her husband's eyes since before he joined the Elite Four. Then she looked at May and took a step back when she saw what she was wearing. Her eyebrows lowered as she thought, ' _That outfit. It almost looks like something that 'they' would wear. But that's not possible. My daughter can't' possibly be one of 'them'! I mean the mere thought is lunacy!_ ' She then looked at Norman and thought, ' _Unless…_ ' and bit her lip, planning to have a 'talk' with Norman after the battle was over.

Staraptor barely dodged Blaziken's next Heat Wave, so Norman called out, "Staraptor, return!" and returned Staraptor's pokéball to its slot on his belt. He closed his eyes before choosing his next pokémon, going back over the battle that had just taken place. He opened his eyes and said, "Go, Gallade!"

May thought, ' _Gallade? Dad's got a Gallade? Where the hell's he been hiding it all this time?_ ' she frowned at Blaziken and thought, ' _If Dad's trained his Gallade right, and there's no reason to think otherwise, then it should have a large amount of physical attacks mixed in with a few ranged attacks. I could switch Blaziken out now, but really, the only alternative I've got is Medicham and without mega evolving it, it stands no chance against Gallade. Since it's got that Galladite on its leg, it can just mega evolve too, negating any worth in mega evolving it in the first place, and giving dad an extra strong pokémon while he's at it. No. The best thing that I can do right now is…_ ' in a loud voice, she said, "Blaziken!" and placed a hand over her heart, gathering her aura into her hand before she reached the hand forward so that it was pointing in the direction of Blaziken. Expanding the range of her aura, it reached Blaziken's and they merged together, becoming one, infinitely more powerful aura that retracted into the two of them, causing them both to take on drastically new appearances. Blaziken it lost its yellow markings, and gained black markings on its upper legs and chest. Its hair-like feathers took on a wing-like shape and point upward, and the portion around its chest is rough around its shoulders. The crest on its head changed into a flat horn that curves backward. The fire on its wrists lengthened to be almost as long as its legs.

Seeing the transformation Norman was stunned speechless. He'd seen Blaziken's mega evolved form before, but he had never seen the trainer of the mega evolved pokémon drastically change their shape too. Caroline though was far more familiar with the transformation. She thought, ' _No!_ ' and closed her eyes as a tear fell down her cheek. ' _She is one of_ them _! An Aura Protector! But how did she become one of them? I thought that Dark Guardians we had destroyed all of them centuries ago. So how did they survive?_ '

May hadn't been idle though, telling Mega Blaziken to use Heat Wave, which hit Gallade head on due to Norman's still feeling the shock from when May's visage transformed. As the stream of flame continued, Norman shook his head, freeing him from the shock and said, "Gallade, use Psychic!" Finally receiving an order, Gallade's eyes glowed green as it used its psychic powers to create a barrier in front of it that split the stream of fire in two, letting it pass to either side of it. But it was too late as, when the stream of flame stopped, Gallade was instantly consumed by a flash of fire that quickly disappeared. Norman grunted as he thought, ' _Great, now Gallade's going to be taking constant damage on top of what May can inflict. I suppose that she could have gotten_ that _from her contests._ '

Norman said, "Well, nothing for it," and reached the arm that had his keystone on over his head, saying, "Gallade, it's time to come together and release your full power, Mega Evolution!" With that said, the keystone that Norman was wearing, as well as the mega stone on Gallade's leg, shone, the light connecting with Gallade, causing it to glow white as it changed. When the light died down, standing there was Mega Gallade. It had some red plates emerge on its arms, and the helmet and cape-like protrusions on its head and back gave it a knightly appearance. Its upper body changed to be completely white, except for a red spike extending from its chest, and the spikes on its head elongated to look even more like a strange, pokémon version of a hairstyle.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Please review people, it helps keep the creative juices flowing, and me interested in continuing on with this story.


	5. Guardian May

Meanwhile, Max had come upon a small entrance into what appeared to be a mineshaft, but that didn't go anywhere near close to explaining exactly what two people wearing red pullovers with a large red 'M' on the centre of their chests were doing outside of it. Crouching behind a large rock, Max released Roserade and quietly told it, "Use Grass Whistle Roserade." It

Max, well used to Roserade's powerful Grass Whistle, was unaffected by it. The same couldn't be said for the guards however and when one of them heard a strange noise he turned to the other guard and said, "Hey, do you hear tha-uhhnn…" both quickly falling asleep.

Max returned Roserade and released Gallade and said, "Gallade, use psychic to bring them over here." Gallade's eyes turned green as it used its psychic energies to bring the guards over to Max. As he did, he made it appear as if they were still walking under their own power, should there be any cameras watching the entrance. Max didn't waste any time in taking the hooded pullover, leg warmers and shoes from the smaller guard and putting them on. He didn't need to strip him completely as he was already wearing similar clothes himself. As he put his stolen uniform on he thought, ' _Good thing that they weren't both girls,_ ' looking at the guard that had been knocked out second. When he was done he put their arms behind and tied them together with a pair of zip-ties that he had in one of the pouches on his aqua pokébelt and then bound their ankles together with another set of ties. He then gagged them with the sleeves of the woman's Magma Jacket.

Before he moved off he checked the pockets of the female guard and found an ID keycard that matched the one that he found in his own pullover. Shrugging, he put it in the other pocket of his Magma Jacket. Lastly he took their pokéballs and placed them in some of the slots on his belt and transferred them over to the Team Aqua base that he had just left, thinking, ' _That'll give them something to think about._ ' Max pulled the hood up before he stepped out, saying, "Now, what _is_ going on here that Team Magma would feel the need to post guards outside of a mine?"

When he was in the tunnel Max found that it was so dimly lit that he could barely see his feet. He grunted and said, "Well, nothing for it," and reached deep inside himself, drawing on the power that his mother had taught him to use. As his sight cleared his sclera turned a glossy black. He said, "There, that's better…" Max then blinked and quietly exclaimed, "Wow! Well, that's obviously why the lights are so dim. I've never seen so many Zubat and Golbat in one place before!" he shook his head and said, "No time for that now. Focus Max. You've got more important things to be thinking about right now," and kept walking down the tunnel.

Soon enough he reached a door and saw a slot for a keycard. He inserted the keycard that he had gotten in his stolen jacket and then took it out again, causing the door to swing inward. He went through and saw a card swiping system and shrugged, swiping the same card, closing the door before it had finished opening. Past the door was very different to what it had been outside. The walls were lined with some kind of metal that Max theorised would have to be very thick to hold back the weight of the mountain that he was in. Max saw some pipes go into what passed as a ceiling and said, "Those pipes…I'd better follow them to their source, could be helpful if I need to escape in a hurry."

In a few minutes he came to a viewing station overlooking a large cavern. What he saw awed him almost as much as it horrified him. Team Magma was in the process of excavating a structure, its beauty matched only by its gargantuan size. He said, "This can't be good. I can't deal with something like this by myself." He thought, ' _Should I call Wallace? He could bring in the reinforcements that I'd need to deal with this…no. I can't involve them yet. I'm still too new to Team Aqua. If they see pokémon league officials being involved, then I'm done for.'_ With that decided, Max grabbed the phone that Team Aqua had given him and dialled the base that he had left earlier.

When the phone was answered, a female voice said, "Hello, AquaTech Underwater Supplies. Who's speaking?"

Max said, "This is Autumn Blaze. I need to speak to Admin Amber."

"Right away Mr Blaze," the voice said.

Max heard a 'beep' as he was transferred to Admin Amber's phone. Eventually Amber said, "Max. I didn't expect to hear from you so soon."

"Yeah. well this operation of Team Magma's is a bit too advanced for me to do anything about it myself."

"I see. Do what you can for now and clear the way for reinforcements."

"Right," Max said, nodding even though he knew that Amber couldn't see him. When he'd hung up, Max retrieved the female guard's keycard from his pullover's pocket before he released Gallade and said, "Here Gallade, I need you to take this keycard and go and wait outside for members of Team Aqua to come and then lead them here."

Gallade cocked his head at Max as if to say, 'Why?'

Max sighed and said, "We can't take down Team Magma's operation here by ourselves, so we're going to need some backup. Unfortunately, even though they know the island that this base is on, they don't know exactly where it is, or how to get inside." Gallade reluctantly nodded and took the proffered keycard and left, headed to the entrance to the mine.

XXXXX

While Max was getting settled in to wait for backup from Team Aqua, Mega Blaziken and Mega Gallade collapsed, Blaziken's Shadow Claw having just blown a super-powered Psyshock up in their faces. As soon as Blaziken lost consciousness May's hair returned to its normal form, as did her eyes and her nails. May said, "Return Blaziken," pointing her pokéball at Blaziken's downed form. After Blaziken was inside its pokéball she whispered, 'You did great,' before shrinking the pokéball to its 'storage size' and retrieving another.

While May got ready for the next round, Norman just looked at his downed Gallade in shock. Then he looked up at May and saw that she had returned to her normal form. He thought, ' _So, that form only lasts so long as a pokémon she owns is in its mega evolved state. I wonder, does that form give her powers too, or is it just a physical representation of the fact that she is using a specific technique? Well, I guess that I can look into_ that _later. For now…_ ' Norman returned Gallade and held its pokéball up to him and said, "Sorry buddy, I guess I really _was_ underestimating her." Norman returned Gallade's pokéball to his pokébelt and chose another. He said, "Go, Flygon!"

May flung her pokéball onto the field at the same time as her father called out his, saying, "I choose you, Mawile!" as soon as Mawile was on the field, May joined her aura with its. Her hair lengthened and split apart, forming into something resembling the two sets of jaws, including the two tufts of hair that they possessed. At the same time her irises turn red and the pupils of her eyes turned white.

Norman's eyes widened at the new transformation and he thought, ' _Mawile too! Does this mean that she_ _can do this with_ every _pokémon that she has too? But how is she doing it?_ ' He looked down at his keystone. ' _In order to mega evolve a pokémon two things are needed, one keystone and the relevant mega stone. Everyone that knows of mega evolution is aware of this, so how is she…wait! Wasn't there some rumour in the Kalos Region that the first pokémon to mega evolve was a Lucario? Even here in Hoenn there are legends about a…group…that could use the same power as certain pokémon. I'm all but certain that Lucario was listed amongst that number. Who were they again? Aura…Aura…well, it's Aura something-or-other. If there_ is _any truth to that rumour, then maybe_ that _Lucario's owner was an Aura…whatever they were called, so is Aura somehow involved with mega evolution? If that's the case, then how can May…?_ ' Norman sighed and said, "Anyway, Flygon, use Stone Edge!" Flygon let out a cry as bits of rock materialised around it. When they were done, they started to swirl around Flygon before they quickly flew at Mega Mawile.

May thought, ' _Dad's got_ _a Flygon too? That aside, he's probably afraid that its dragon type attacks will be ineffective then? Well, Mawile's part fairy type, so that's all well and good for him. Unfortunately that limits what I can do in regards of making full use of Mega Mawile's Huge Power ability_.' May said, "Mawile, you use Stone Edge too!" Mega Mawile stomped on the ground and stones rose up out of it. They flew at the smaller attacks from the opponent, completely negating them. As they did May thought, ' _Wait. Does Dad's Flygon even_ know _any dragon type attacks? Lets see…the last time I checked there was Fly, Earth Power, it's obviously kept Stone Edge…what else was there…?! I can't remember. Well, I suppose knowledge like that can only hurt me in a battle like this anyway._ ' "Mawile, use Fairy Wind!"

As the two mouths on Mawile's back moved forward, taking aim at Flygon, Norman grunted and said, "Flygon, quickly, use Earthquake!" Flygon quickly flew down to the arena floor and slammed its tail into it, causing the field to rumble and shake about. Mega Mawile shot its attack at Flygon, and it hit, but due to it not having enough time to fully charge it, it didn't do too much damage. The same couldn't be said for Flygon's attack though, leaving Mawile lying unconscious in its normal form.

May grunted as her hair fell down and her eyes returned to normal. She thought, ' _So, it was Earth_ quake _then?_ ' and returned Mawile to its pokéball. She quickly drew another pokéball from her belt and said, "Go, Medicham!" she didn't waste any time mega evolving Medicham, just as she had Blaziken and Mawile. This time, her hair turned white and she gained a yellow dot on her forehead. Four scarves appeared floating around her neck that seemed to be made from aura itself.

Norman groaned and said, " _Please_ tell me that you can't do that with _every_ one of your pokémon?"

"No," May said. "Only those that have the potential to mega evolve already." Norman let out a sigh of relief. "Of course, there _are_ other methods that can be used to achieve such an aim, but my brethren and I do not believe in such methods."

' _Brethren?!'_ Caroline screeched in her mind. ' _So they_ did _survive! But how? We destroyed them and their precious cult,_ ' her eyes turning completely black, letting her see the aura that May and Medicham were now sharing with each other, and just how powerful her daughter really was.

Norman called out, "Flygon, use Earthquake again!" once again Flygon flew at the ground and slammed its tail into it, causing the field to start to shake once again.

May wasn't going to let there be a repeat performance though, and said, "Medicham, use Psychic, just like we've been training for."

Mega Medicham said, "Medi," as it raised its right hand and lowered its left, its eyes taking on a pink glow as it raised into the air. It kept on rising up until it was level with Flygon after it returned to the level that it was on before it had used Earthquake.

Seeing Medicham floating in the sky, Norman and Caroline thought, ' _What the heck?_ ' looking up at a sight that they'd never even considered seeing. Norman then went on to think, ' _Wait. If it's doing that with psychic, then it won't be able to make an attack. In that case._ ' "Flygon, use Fire Blast!"

May simply said, "You know what to do," and Medicham extended the barrier that he was using in order to create a protective dome around it, preventing the Fire Blast from going through. When the Fire Blast had ended, May said, "Now, make a platform and use Ice Punch!"

Receiving the order, Medicham lowered its protective shield, extending it out in a kind of strange, invisible, platform and it ran over it to Flygon as a whitish glow started to form around its fist. When it within range of Flygon, Norman had recovered from the shock he felt, witnessing Medicham's control of its powers, and ordered Flygon to fly out of reach.

May called out, "Go after it!" Medicham took a leap off of its platform, and easily landed its attack, Flygon not having had enough time to get completely out of range. Flygon was easily taken out, due to the normal double disadvantage it had to ice type attacks, but throw in Mega Medicham's Pure Power ability and it stood no chance against it.

Norman returned Flygon to its pokéball, and looked down at it. He said, "Sorry Flygon. You did your best. "May, it would appear that I was wrong about you."

"You really mean it?" She asked Norman eagerly, more than happy at getting recognition for her skills by one of the Elite Four.

"Yes. But remember, it was you who insisted that this be a six on six full battle. So even if you _do_ somehow manage to take out my next pokémon, the battle still won't be over."

"I'm well aware of how it works," May angrily said.

"I know May. I was just reminding you if you had forgotten and myself too."

"Yourself?"

"Yes. It's been a while since I've had to compete in a battle like this one and I'd forgotten the feeling of being in a no-holds barred battle to the finish. Recently it's always been about pushing the challenger as far as they can go. doing that means that you develop certain strategies that are easy to execute and reproduce time and again. While it does assist in the development of other trainer's skills, it also tends to restrict the ones using those repetitive strategies. So in a way, this battle is helping me as much as it is proving that you do indeed possess the level of skills that you lay claim to. So please, continue to come at me with everything you've got. To the last." May then did something that Norman hadn't been expecting. May laughed. She was laughing so hard that she actually had to grab her stomach. Norman grunted and asked, "What's so funny?"

May stopped laughing and said, "Oh, it's nothing really. It's just that over the years, I've picked up and stolen lots of techniques from gym leaders, frontier brains and members of multiple Regional Elite Four's, as well as adding my own personal twist to them. So those simple but effective strategies give birth to new ones all the time."

Norman smiled and closed his eyes. He said, "Thank you May," in a caring voice. "You have no idea how much that means to me to hear you say that."

"You're probably right," May said, "but it had to be said anyway."

Norman smiled and said, "Alright then, let's go, Staraptor!" As he released Staraptor from its pokéball, Norman saw that Medicham was breathing heavily and thought, ' _Using Psychic the way it was must have taken a toll._ ' He didn't waste any time in calling out, "Staraptor, use Brave Bird!"

May called out, "Medicham, use Psychic again," thinking, ' _I hope it still has it in it,_ ' well aware of the strain that it put on Medicham to use psychic to fly like that, only having recently perfected it. Medicham did manage to use psychic, but it was only enough to slightly redirect Staraptor.

Staraptor's attack still hit it, causing a lot of damage, but not quite enough to end Medicham's Participation in the match between father and daughter. When it was back on Norman's side of the field, Staraptor was surrounded by multiple small, blue, sparks, inflicting the recoil damage upon it from using Brave Bird.

Seeing the state that Medicham was in, May quickly reached for its pokéball and tried to return it. It was covered in red energy, and started to dematerialise, but, to May's shock, the energy disappeared and Staraptor collided with Medicham, knocking it out with the only dark type attack that it knew."

May sighed, looking at her downed Medicham, now back in its normal form. She looked to her father with a raised eyebrow and said, "Pursuit?"

Norman nodded and said, "Like I said, simple and repeatable strategies."

"Hmm, if you don't mind, could you teach one of my pokémon that technique?"

"I can certainly try, but Staraptor already knew it when it hatched from an egg."

"I see," May said.

"Well, I can at least give it a go anyway," Norman said, more than willing to help his daughter in any way that he could, though he couldn't see how a move like pursuit would be much help in a contest.

"Thanks," May said, smiling, glad that she was finally getting her father back after so long. With that said, she returned Medicham to its pokéball, saying, "You did great. Now you can use Psychic immediately after using it to hover. That said, there was nothing more that either of us could have done to avoid that loss." May hovered over her pokéballs, not really wanting to use Mienshao if she could help it, knowing that, in all likelihood, she was going to need it soon after their battle was done. She also wanted to avoid using Flygon for the same reason. So she chose the only other pokémon that she had, Toxicroak. When it was on the field, she said, "Toxicroak, use Hidden Power!" Toxicroak gripped its hands together and multiple purple orbs appeared around it before they all flew at Staraptor.

Norman called out, "Staraptor, dodge them!" and Staraptor flapped its wings at the ground, forcing itself up before it flew forward to avoid all of them. Unfortunately for it, Toxicroak's control over its attack was absolute and the orbs followed it, eventually catching up to it and exploding when they hit, knocking the already damaged pokémon out, causing it to fall to the ground from near the ceiling.

Seeing that it was going to hit the ground before Norman could recall it, May called out, "Toxicroak, catch it!" in a desperate attempt to avoid further injury being inflicted upon it. Toxicroak managed to catch it just in time and lowered it to the ground, letting Norman recall it safely.

Norman said, "Thank you May. Most trainers wouldn't bother assisting an opponent's pokémon like that."

"Maybe not," May said, "But it's still a pokémon, opponent or no."

Norman grinned, seeing an image of himself descend over his daughter, having said much the same to one of his rivals during his younger days, when _he_ went from region to region.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Please review people, it helps keep the creative juices flowing, and me interested in continuing on with this story.


	6. May Enters The Fray

Norman thought, ' _Well, well well, I didn't know that May had a Toxicroak. It must have been a new addition from the Almia Region. In any case, it's an unfortunate thing for May that it's a poison type._ ' He said, "I'm sorry about this May,…"

May thought, ' _What's dad apologising about?_ '

"…but I choose you, Zangoose."

' _Oh. That. Bugger. Zangoose's abilities all rely upon its getting poisoned. Thankfully_ my _Toxicroak doesn't have the Poison Touch ability. That said, I guess this means that Toxic is out, so is Sludge Wave. It's a pity, Toxicroak's strongest attack is Venoshock. Well, that said, Zangoose_ is _a normal type. Okay dad, call an attack._ '

Having waited long enough, Norman said, "Alright, if she's not going, Zangoose, use Feint!" seeing May's grin, Norman thought, ' _What's she grinning about. Wait! Toxicroak is also a fighting type! I know! I'll use one of Ash's tricks._ ' When Zangoose was about halfway to Toxicroak, Norman said, "Now, change it to Aerial Ace!"

May thought, ' _Aerial Ace! Zangoose can learn Aerial Ace! Wait, isn't that…_ ' When May saw Zangoose get surrounded by a light blue glow she thought, ' _Apparently so._ ' She wasted no time in coming up with a counter move and, when Zangoose was closer, she said, "When it disappears, jump and spin." Toxicroak did just as May asked and, when Zangoose was very close to it, it disappeared. Toxicroak activated its Anticipation ability in order to calculate where Zangoose would reappear, so it was ready for May's next command. It didn't wait long as, as soon as it had disappeared, May said, "Use Drain Punch!" When Zangoose reappeared, it didn't even see the super-effective attack coming before it was lying on the ground, unconscious.

Seeing May's move, Norman was left blinking, unable to comprehend exactly what just happened. So, dumbstruck, he asked, "Uhh…what just happened?"

May said, "Toxicroak and I trained so that it could actively use Anticipation in order to predict where a super effective move will be coming from and…well, use that knowledge in order to counterattack."

"I see," Norman said. "Could you teach my Kangaskhan to do that with Early Bird?"

"I don't know. I think that it only works with some abilities of some pokémon."

"Oh? Does that mean that you know of another pokémon that can do the same?"

"Yeah. Ash's Infernape can do it too."

"Any idea why?"

"Keep in mind that I'm just theorising here…" Seeing her father nod, May continued, "It could be that when Infernape and Toxicroak activate their abilities, something about them changes."

"Something changes?"

"Yeah Infernape's flaming hair gets a lot bigger and far more intense, and, you probably didn't see it, but Toxicroak's eyes and red marks started to glow when it activated Anticipation."

"I see," Norman said, thinking, ' _I'll have to look into this and see if I can find any pokémon similar to Toxicroak or Infernape._ ' He said, 'Go, Exploud!" after returning Zangoose. "Exploud, use Earthquake!"

"Earthquake!" May squeaked, Toxicroak having no way to counter _that_ attack. When Toxicroak was laying on the ground, unconscious, May sighed and said, "Toxicroak return," hanging her head. She wasted little time in saying, "Flygon, it's your turn," flinging her Flygon's pokéball into the air.

Norman thought, ' _She's got one too!? Is catching Flygon genetic in our family or something? Well, I suppose Caroline and I both have one, so it's not too far-fetched a theory, but I've never even mentioned having one myself before. Well, it's too bad that Exploud is the pokémon that I used to capture it._ ' He said, "Exploud, use Ice Beam!"

A ball of ice energy collected in front of Exploud's before it shot at Flygon. But the ice energy had blocked Exploud's sight and Flygon wasn't where it had last seen it. Exploud only felt the ground under its feet move for a second before Flygon slammed into it, causing it to rise up in the air, getting damaged by the ground type attack. May didn't waste any time taking it out of the battle when she called out, "Flygon, use Giga Impact!" Flygon was surrounded by swirling purple and orange energy that knocked Exploud out when it collided with Exploud, Norman not getting the chance to even try to counterattack.

Norman said, "Well done May. You've clearly been working on your Flygon's speed."

"Yeah. It took a while, but now it can even keep up with a Garchomp."

"Seriously! Garchomp is one of the fastest pokémon that can take to the air!"

"Yeah," May grinned. "Its trainer was really surprised when that happened."

"I bet," Norman said. "In any case, I'll forfeit the next battle."

"What?" May exclaimed. "But why?"

"I brought Sawsbuck as my last pokémon. While it has some powerful attacks, it is still a land-based battler. Since you are using Flygon, I wouldn't be able to attack, so there's little point in continuing."

"But I thought that this was a _six-on-six_ trainer battle!"

"It is. Fighting a losing battle is far different to fighting an unwinnable one."

"I see," May said, smiling that she wouldn't have to use either Flygon or Mienshao and tire them out needlessly. She returned Flygon to its pokéball and crossed the field to the centre, meeting Norman there.

When May reached him in the middle, Norman said, "That was a great battle May."

"Thanks Dad," May said seriously.

Norman said, "You know…I may be a member of the elite four May, but I _am_ also still the leader of the Petalburg Gym, and you _did_ defeat three of my pokémon first."

"Wait. What are you saying?" May asked.

Norman grinned and said, "Do you want a badge?"

"Do I want a…? Well…You know I didn't really do this for a badge, so…"

"Nonsense," Norman said. "You earned it May." Norman looked over to his wife and said, "Caroline…" Caroline nodded and went to get a badge from the safe that they still kept the badges in.

May said, "Well…thank you, really," surprised at just how happy she was for receiving a badge from her hometown's gym, even though that wasn't what she had ever set out to do. But, in a serious tone, she said, "But don't think that this means that I've forgotten what this battle was about."

Norman sighed and nodded. "I didn't forget May," and sighed again. "Team Magma and Team Aqua have started up again under new leadership."

"Seriously!?" May exclaimed. "I thought for sure that they'd been disbanded after that incident on Monsu Island."

"Yes. So did every official of the Pokémon League."

"So, what does _that_ have to do with Max?"

Norman sighed and said, "Wallace recruited him to spy on Team Aqua for us."

"Spy on…that's crazy! How could he think that that was in any way a good plan?"

Norman sighed and said, "I agree with you. That's why I asked him that very question. I didn't really like the answer, but it's too late to do anything about it now."

"What was it?"

"We needed someone on the inside to report to us on the movements of Team Aqua and the story that they concocted is pretty much true anyway. So Max _should_ be in no danger, if he's smart about it."

" _What_ story?"

"That the Pokémon League just doesn't have the strength to take on both Team Magma and Team Aqua. Of course, they left that second bit out."

"So what, they're _recruiting_ Team _Aqua,_ to be their agents or something? That's even more insane than using Max as a spy!"

"I know, and I did _try_ and express that view, but, like I said, it was too late and Max was already under."

May sighed and said, "Do they at least have an _idea_ of where he is and what they are doing?"

Norman sighed and said, "As far as I'm aware, they have identified one of Team Aqua's bases. Max was sent there with the story that I told you about. So he's probably still somewhere near there."

" _Where_ is it?"

"No, _please_ May."

May said, "I'm going," a red energy flowing into her eyes.

"You can't…"

"I'm the only one in the Hoenn Region right now that _can_ put a stop to whatever they are doing at that base. So tell me, _where_ is it?"

Norman sighed and said, "Nothing I say is going to change your mind, is it?"

"No."

Norman sighed again and said, "I wish that you wouldn't do this alone."

"I won't be alone for very long," May cryptically said.

"You won't be…What do you mean?"

May grinned and said, "A girl's got to have their secrets."

Norman sighed and said, "You sound just like your mother. In any case, the base is on Wailmer Island."

"Wailmer Island? Isn't that one of the islands between Slateport City and Ever Grande City?"

"Yes. Wait. How did you know that?"

"I've been there once before, though it was practically deserted at the time."

"I see," Norman said relieved that May at least hadn't encountered Team Aqua's base there before. As May turned around and left after receiving the Balance Badge from her mother, Norman thought, ' _I wonder who she meant._ '

May didn't bother going back to her room, already having prepared for her journey before her battle with her father, heading straight for the door. Before she could leave though, her mother caught up to her and grabbed her arm tightly as she said, "I don't know who taught you, but know this. If you become a threat, I'll put an end to you."

May blinked, looking at her mother and saw her sclera turn a glossy black. May gasped said, "You're a…" she lowered her eyebrows and said, "Did you teach Max how to…"

Caroline's face formed into a sneer and said, "Of course I did. After all, _someone_ needs to be able to protect the world."

May sighed and said, "You know, there's a reason that we backed down 'then'. Maybe you should think about why we did before trying to label _me_ a threat." She then ripped her arm away from her mother and stormed out of the house, heading straight to the pokémon centre to get her pokémon healed and get Professor Birch to transfer her some of her other pokémon, having the feeling that she was going to need a team at full health. The only thing that she was regretting, was the fact that she couldn't have her full Guardian Team with her.

XXXXX

Two hours later, as May was flying on the back of her Charizard, she thought, ' _Well, I suppose that now's as good a time as any to see about getting those reinforcements._ ' She closed her eyes, trusting Charizard to not drop her as she had the first few times that she had flown on her back. She then opened them, glowing red. She pictured Ash in her mind and rested her forehead against the aura crystal in her staff.

As Ash was listening to Adria's tales of how she met Courtney and was recruited into Team Magma, his eyes suddenly shone blue and his sight turned black. Seeing May standing before him in the blackness, Ash communicated, _"May! What are you…"_

 _"I need your hel…actually. What are_ you _doing here in_ Hoenn _? I thought that you were going to go and see Delia before you..."_

 _"I know. And I was going to, but I met Lance when I got off the boat and he dragged me into some scheme of his involving Team Magma."_

 _"You're involved with..."_ May sighed irritably. _"And when were you going to tell_ me _about this?"_

 _"I was going to tell you soon, but Lance had me go on a binger in Hoenn so that I could get onto Team Magma's radar. Speaking of which, I'm with one of them now, so if you can make this quick…"_

May mentally sighed and said, _"If you're already involved, then I suppose that I can't get you to help me then."_

 _"What do you mean?"_

 _"My idiot brother thought that he could do much the same thing as you are, except_ he's _with_ Team Aqua. _"_

Ash mentally sighed and communicated, _"Sorry May."_

 _"Yeah. But if you can't then I'll just have to do it myself."_

 _"If you can track me down I'll be able to help get you those reinforcements, but I can't reach Sinnoh without my staff."_

 _"Sinnoh?"_

 _"Yeah. Riley should still be on Iron Island."_

 _"Riley? That's great. I didn't even think of him!"_

Ash sighed and communicated, _"I'm sorry May, but now I really have to go."_

 _"Yeah, right,"_ May said, reluctant to cut their communication off so soon.

 _"Oh! Right. How did your research go?"_

 _"I was right."_

 _"So we_ can _Mega Evolve our Pokémon without the use of either a Keystone or a Mega Stone then?"_

 _"Yeah. But it's easier if we have a keystone embedded into our staff."_

 _"Really?"_

 _"Yeah. I don't know why myself."_

 _"Yeah. I know. You're powers are more esoteric. Riley should be able to figure it out. How do you do it?"_

 _"The Keystone and Mega Stone forcefully manipulate the frequency and amount of aura that gets shared between trainer and Pokémon. They also serve as a buffer so that the aura of the Pokémon doesn't overpower the trainer's mind."_

 _"I see. So for Aura Guardians like us, who have control over aura…"_

 _"That's right. We're mostly unaffected. However there are still some changes that occur, but they're mostly aesthetic."_

 _"What do you mean 'mostly'?"_

 _"When I Mega Evolve Mawile, my hair bunches up and back, resembling its dual mouth appendages. At the same time my eyes change too."_

 _"Change? Change how?"_

 _"It's similar to when I'm using aura sight. My irises become red and my pupils white, but they don't have the same glow to them."_

 _"I see. I wish that I could try it out with Lucario right now."_

 _"You can't?"_

 _"No. Lance had to take all of my Pokémon from me for my cover to be believable."_

 _"Your cover?"_

 _"You know that stupid lawsuit that stopped me from competing in the Kalos League?"_

 _"Yes. What about it?"_

 _"Well, the story that Lance concocted was that the Kanto courts overturned the ruling of the Kalos Region court and my Trainer's License was revoked."_

 _"It was revoked!"_ May mentally exclaimed. Then, in a more sorrowful tone, communicated, _"I'm so sorry Ash."_

 _"It's fine. It's a necessary evil in the grand scheme of things. Lance got the judge involved to make some kind of official document detailing the exact circumstances of my case, so when this is all over and done with, I'll get my trainer's license back free and clear."_

May let out a mental sigh and communicated, _"That's good,"_ her relief evident, and heartfelt, knowing very well just how Ash would be feeling.

 _"Okay, I'll be seeing you May."_

 _"Yeah,"_ May sighed, cutting off their communication. When she opened her eyes again, May let out a sigh and rubbed her Charizard's neck. She said, "Sorry girl, but it looks like we won't be seeing Ash any time soon." Her Charizard let out a small whine, annoyed that it would be even longer till she could see her mate again, but knowing that her trainer also felt the same way helped. Not a lot, but it did help all the same. "I know girl, I know," May said, commiserating with her Pokémon's longing. "But all the griping in the world isn't going to get them to us any quicker, taking down the jerkoffs that we're about to though, will." With those words, Charizard let out an angry cry, ready to destroy whoever, and whatever, was in the way of returning to her mate.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, in Team Magma's training base, Adria was waving her hand in front of Ash, saying, "Hello-oo, earth to A-Ash…anybody home?" then Ash blinked and shook his head, coming out of the trance that he entered when communicating across long distances without his staff. Adria, seeing that Ash was now back from wherever he was, asked, "So, what was that?"

"What was what?" Ash asked, the blue glow fading from his eyes.

"That blue glow that your eyes had while you were off with the faries."

"Blue glow?" Ash asked, trying to play dumb.

Adria wasn't buying it. She said, "Don't try and play dumb with me, _Ash_. _What_ was up with your eyes?"

Ash sighed and said, "Look, just drop it, alright. It's better if you don't know," a sad look on his face, trying to convey that it was something painful from his past.

Adria's eyebrows lifted and her face transformed into one that was almost apologetic. She said, "Alright. But if you ever _do_ want to talk about it, just know that I'll be available." Then, quirkily, she said, "After all, we'll be spending a lot of time together now that we're partners."

"Yeah. I was going to ask about that."

"About what?"

"What this whole 'partner' thing is about."

"Well, the last time that Team Magma rose up, we were defeated by a couple of wannabe heroes…"

Ash thought, ' _Wannabe hero, huh?_ '

"So, when Tabitha revived it, he implemented a series of changes in the team dynamic. Instead of just having a few elite 'admin' level trainers under one…well, kingpin I suppose is the best way to describe him, and then a whole bunch of foot soldiers, that it would be better to have some skilled trainers that need not be Admins. So he came up with this partner system, this way the two members of Team Magma can push themselves by battling against and training with each other. That way, you should, in theory, end up with a stronger Team Magma. Now, with you and me here, they should be getting ready for whatever we're going to be doing."

"Any idea what that is?"

"Nope," Adria grinned. "Like I said, only Admin's like Courtney would know something like that. You 'n' me are just rungs on a ladder for them."

Ash raised his eyebrow and said, "I don't know about you, but for me, I'll _never_ be someone's pawn." Ash shrugged his shoulder and said, "Even if I am just a rung."

Adria laughed. And laughed. And laughed. When she eventually stopped she had a dangerous grin on her face and thought, ' _Finally, someone that I can work with!_ ' Her smile softened and she said, "Well, I'd say that it's time for afternoon tea."

XXXXXXX

A/N

Backgrounds to the powers of May and Caroline will be provided in future chapters, as will any subsequent characters that Ichoose to create.j

Please review people, it helps keep the creative juices flowing, and me interested in continuing on with this story.


	7. The True Red Orb

When May was approaching the archipelago leading to Ever Grande City she felt a large presence of Aura on a nearby island and thought, ' _That's odd. That's not Wailmer Island. As a matter of fact…'_ May extended her senses. _'I was right! There are more people there than there are on Wailmer Island!_ ' She frowned and said, "Wait! This feeling…it's almost like…" ' _But the Red and Blue Orbs were destroyed!'_ She said, "Charizard, we're going to be taking a bit of a detour," and nudged her on the right of her neck, telling Charizard to bank left. When they were over the island that May was feeling the energy from the Red Orb, she said, "Okay girl, hover here for a bit," as she reached for a pokéball from her belt.

XXXXX

Inside the mountain, things had gone from bad to worse. Now, not only was Team Magma continuing to unearth whatever the structure was, now they were fighting against Team Aqua, who had somehow managed to get into their base. That was a quandary that Admin Blaise was angrily trying to figure out from within the structure, thinking, ' _What the hell is going on? How did_ they _know that we were active here? Let alone getting in to distract us from completing the new red orb! Although we've been having enough problems doing_ that _as it is. It's almost like there's a component missing, but what could it…_ '

Outside the megalith, Team Magma and Team Aqua had released all of their Pokémon and were pairing off against one another, their numbers being much the same. There were Zubat fighting against Gligar, Houndour, and some Houndoom, squaring off against Golduck & Buizel. In amongst all of this was one member of team aqua that hadn't released any of his Pokémon. Max. He was currently slinking around the side of the cavern, attempting to get into the megalith before whatever team magma was after had been found, knowing that it could only spell trouble for the world. Before he could get there though, he saw some bits of stone fall in front of him and thought, ' _What the…?_ ' and looked up and saw cracks opening up in the roof of the cavern.

His eyes widened in shock, and fear, thinking, ' _What the?! A cave in?_ Now _!_ ' and released Crobat, and was about to tell it to use Protect, but stopped as he saw two Pokémon emerge from a cylindrical hole in the cavern's roof. He thought, ' _What the! Flygon and Charizard? Wait. They look vaguely famil…'_ then he saw something occur that gravely concerned him. Charizard changed. He thought, ' _What in the?! But Charizard is a fully evolved Pokémon. It can't evolve again._ ' What he saw next straight up frightened him though. He saw a woman drop through the same hole.

She was wearing a pair of tight black pants and a red tunic tied off with a wide black pokébelt. She wasn't wearing her normal bandanna, having abandoned it for this match, replacing it with a cavalier hat that had one side folded up. It had a silver feather attached to the brim by a red crystal. She was wearing a pair of black leather close-fit fingerless gloves that reached halfway to her elbow that had red strips running down the back, an angular simulacrum of the bones underneath, though they stopped before the fingers. She was also wearing a pair of black leather boots. But that wasn't what was freaking Max out. The woman looked almost like his sister, except she had black hair that had light blue tips, her eyes looked to be made blue fire and she had some kind of translucent light blue pauldrons extending forward and back from her shoulders and wings that were spread out to a truly dramatic effect.

Max quickly said, "Crobat, use protec…!" but he was cut off from his Pokémon as he saw the woman raise what looked to be a staff of some kind of red crystal above her head and a red light shine from it, illuminating the entire cavern.

The entire inner structure lit up, the lines all through the megalith glowing red. Inside a chamber at the centre of the structure, Admin Blaise blinked, stunned and confused about what he was seeing, but, as he saw the ingredients pour into the spherical mould in the altar, a manic smile appeared on his face. He exclaimed "How the hell did that happen?"

The man in a white lab coat standing next to him looked at him and said, "I don't know. It could be that we were missing one final element for the completion."

"Do you know what it was?"

"Not entirely." Seeing Blaise glare down at him, Professor Conley hurriedly said, "Well, we had hypothesised that the lines could potentially be used to convey power to the device. But I assure you, we had tried everything that we could think of!" trying to save himself from Blaise's notoriously quick temper.

"So why _now_?"

"I don't know. It could be that a certain number of Pokémon and people needed to be within a certain range for it to work by some kind of thermal or magnetic energy. I just don't know."

Blaise grunted and said, "Fine. But I _expect_ you to do a thorough analysis of everything that has happened here when we're done."

"Of course, He he he he, if I didn't, I wouldn't be doing my job," Dr Conley said, sending chills down Blaise's spine, unsure if he wanted to know what else the professor thought that his job entailed.

At the same time, outside the megalith, the woman in the air lowered her gaze to the ground, searching through the aura's below for her brothers. She found it almost immediately and created a red barrier around both him and his just released Crobat. Max pushed up against the barrier and cried out , " _No!_ Let me out!" and started banging on it.

He stopped when he heard a familiar voice in his head angrily say, " _Max! Stop that. We'll deal with your recklessness later. For now…_ "

"What! May!" Max thought.

May picked it up, having yet to sever the connection, but used her aura to augment her voice and announced, "I'm putting an end to this _now._ " May communicated, " _Max. I don't have time to deal with you right now._ "

" _You don't have time to?! I don't have time to be stuck in here._ "

" _Too bad. But you needn't worry. This won't take long."_ With that, Max saw May flap her 'wings' and she flew to the ground.

Max thought, ' _There's just one problem with that plan May._ '

Max heard, " _And what's that exactly?"_

 _'Heh, your powers can't contain me.'_ Max then channelled his powers into his limbs and his nails turned black and hardened into claws. He then thrust them into May's barrier. To his shock, dismay, horror, he couldn't decide which, nothing happened. He thought, ' _What the…that's impossible! My powers should be stronger._ '

Max heard, " _I can go into great detail about exactly why you, and Mum, are weaker than I am_ later _._ "

' _Wait! You_ know _about Mum and me?'_ Max communicated as he saw May ducked under a punch, spun and rose back up, forcing her elbow into the Aqua Grunt's chin. ' _For how long?_ '

But May had cut off her link to her brother, knowing that if she kept it open any longer, she could get distracted, and, given the current situation, that could have fatal consequences. When she got the chance, she released Glaceon and Venusaur, who joined Flygon and Charizard in attacking the grunts' Pokémon while their master took care of the human enemies.

As May moved through the dual armies, the grunts started getting scared as she hadn't even started to use the staff that she had with her, taking them all down using simple hand to hand. Of course, she _was_ augmenting her body with aura, but hey, they didn't know that.

Inside the structure, Blaise's manic grin faded into a satisfied one. He looked at Dr Conley and said, "Can we take it now?"

"Hmm…" Dr Conley said. "I don't see why not. However…"

"However…?" Blaise asked.

Dr Conley sighed and said, "I just don't know. You see, it's this red energy running through the lines. It's almost like it's more like it's responding to something rather than providing energy to this site."

"It's responding to it? Do you know what it's responding to?"

"No. but if I could get a sample I might be able to analyse it properly at my lab in Cameru..." Blaise coughed, cutting the professor off before he could finish, silently glaring at him for almost revealing where he would be conducting his research, violating Team policy. "…but, of course, you don't need to know where it is, do you?" Blaise grunted before looking back to the orb. The professor grabbed a grunt that had been guarding them and said, "You, use that laser cutter over there to cut out some of that glowing red stuff."

The grunt nodded, saying, "Sir," and grabbed the cutting tool. When he picked it up he went back to the nearest glowing line and knelt next to it. He looked up at the professor and asked, "So, how much will you need?"

"Take about one foot of it. But make sure you only cut it from the top."

"From the top?"

"Yes," Dr Conley angrily said, mentally cursing the grunt's lack of intellect. "If you sever it completely, depending on how this system was set up, it could cause everything to blow up."

"It could...!" The grunt exclaimed, his eyes boggling out to comic proportions. He nodded rapidly and repeatedly before he held his breath and very carefully did as ordered and shaved a length of the, what he supposed must have been some sort of crystal, out of the line in the floor. When nothing happened he let out the breath that he had been holding and was surprised, and comforted, to hear two more coming from Blaise and Dr Conley. The grunt looked up at his superiors and asked, "What do you want me to do now sir?" not really caring which 'sir' answered him.

Blaise looked to the professor for an answer, as this wasn't really his specialty. Dr Conley said, "Hmm…" and went over to a bench that they had set up within the chamber. From the bench he picked up what appeared to be a briefcase of some sort, except for the fact that it was completely made out of a light metal and had wires running all through it. Dr Conley walked over to the grunt and said, "Put it in this," as he opened it on the ground.

"What's that?" Blaise cautiously asked.

"It's a special containment case that I created should we need to take any dangerous specimens away from a site. I made many of these and distributed them throughout the science division."

"What about security?"

"They are all programmed with the same code so that, should one of us fall before we can get it open in a lab, another scientist can come along and complete what we were doing."

"I see. That's very…noble? Of you."

"Not really. I also included a secondary code to identify which scientist is opening it. If it's not entered within thirty seconds a highly corrosive gas will be released that will completely destroy both whoever opened it, along with the specimen itself." Blaise smirked at the revelation, being rather concerned with security himself. "In any case,…" Dr Conley said, closing the case and entering the original code again. "…how are we going to get out of here? Those grunts that we brought clearly aren't going to be enough against that girl," nodding to the security monitors that they had set up as he went and got another case to put the orb in. With the case in hand he nodded at the grunt and then tilted his head at the orb.

"Right," the grunt nodded, calmer now than he had been originally when he had cut the crystal shard from the line on the ground. When he picked the orb up off of the table, Blaise and Dr Conley saw his eyes start to glow blue.

Dr Conley thought, ' _This is an interesting phenomenon. I wonder what caused it. Well, it's obvious that it is involved with the power of the orb, but…_ '

Blaise however, was on a different train of thought. ' _This feeling I'm getting! It's just like what happened when Archie locked me in that damn sub with Tabitha and Amber._ ' Seeing the pained look on the grunt's face, he thought, ' _Is he fighting against the power of the orb? If that's so then…_ ' He firmly called out, "Quick! Put it in the case!"

The grunt screamed, "GRRRNNNRRGGG-IYAAAAAAAAAAAA," as he painfully forced his arm out so that he could drop the orb in the case that Dr Conley was holding open under it.

When the orb was in the case, Blaise said, "Quick Doc, shut that damn case _now!_ " Not seeing, or feeling, the urgency that Blaise was, Dr Conley calmly and methodically went through the same process as he had earlier with the shard. Blaise wasn't going to let his orders be dismissed as arbitrarily as Dr Conley seemed to think that they could be and said, "Do it _now_ , before we start to get controlled by it!"

"Before we…!" Dr Conley exclaimed as he hurriedly followed through with what Blaise had directed him to. When he was done entering the code, he looked back at Blaise and asked, "Now, what did you mean when you said that it could 'control us'?"

Blaise sighed and said, "Back when Maxie was in charge, and the original Red and Blue Orbs were destroyed, there was a theory that only those that possessed a strong mind could control the powers of the orbs and that anyone with a weak mind would be unable to and get controlled by it in turn. But we were wrong and when Archie got a hold of the Red Orb he was taken over by it and he went on a rampage with Kyogre. I was just getting the same feeling from that grunt," nodding at the grunt lying on the floor, "as I did from Archie at that time."

"I see, I see…" Dr Conley said, "I'll need to look into this before I can say that it can be safely used to fully control Groudon." Blaise grinned and nodded. "But in the meantime, how are we going to get out of here? That girlie seems to be putting up quite the resistance out there."

Blaise frowned and said, "She got in here by making a hole in the roof of the cavern, didn't she?"

"I believe so, yes."

"Then we can just go out that way. I think that your bio said that you had a flying type, didn't it?"

"Yes."

"Good. Then it'll be easy," Blaise said as an evil grin formed on his face.

Dr Conley nodded and said, "Lead the way."

As Blaise and Dr Conley made their way through the structure with the grunt, who had just woken up as they were leaving, struggling to keep up with them, Dr Conley realised that they weren't actually headed to the main entrance that they had used to get into the structure. He asked, "Blaise, where are you leading us?"

Blaise said, "Why, to the exit of course," and kept on walking.

When they reached their destination, Dr Conley's and the grunt's eyes widened at the sight before them. It was a wide space with a massive gap in the outer wall of the structure. The grunt said, "This is just like a…"

Dr Conley said, "The hanger bay on the…" cutting himself off when he saw Blaise glaring at him again.

"Yes. From what we have been able to ascertain, this room served that very function, though they have been unable to discover exactly why it is unable to be seen from the outside, or even why it exists in the first place, given that the structure was made out of the rock inside the cavern. But that doesn't matter right now. What _does_ is that we can use it for its original purpose."

"Right," the grunt said.

Blaise looked at the grunt and asked, "You have a flying type too then?"

"Yeah. I caught it before I came to work for Team Magma and transferred it over to one of my Team Magma pokéballs."

"Is that so?"

"Yes sir!" The grunt said.

Blaise thought, ' _I might see about getting this guy assigned to me. He seems to be able to follow orders and is competent enough to keep up with both me and the doc._ ' He said, "Alright. We'll release our Pokémon at the back and fly at full tilt so that she doesn't have time to stick her Flygon and her…Charizard?...on us."

"Yes sir," The grunt said. Blaise, Dr Conley and the grunt then went to the back of the hanger and released an Aerodactyl, Pidgeot and Noivern respectively. They got on them and flew out of the structure one after the other at top speed.

Even though May _did_ sense them, she didn't have enough time to send either Flygon or Charizard after them. She grunted in irritation as she continued fighting against the grunts from both sides as she saw them fly through the opening that she had created in her rush to get inside. Her eyes widened as she felt the ground start to shake after the three from Team Magma had escaped and though, ' _What the…?_ ' and sent her senses outside the cave and what she saw horrified her. On top of the cave she saw a Camerupt and a Magcargo standing on the top of the mountain that the cavern was inside of and they were sending tremors throughout the entire island, using the Magnitude and Earthquake attacks respectively.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Please review people, it helps keep the creative juices flowing, and me interested in continuing on with this story.


	8. The True Start of the Ancient War

When rocks started to fall from the ceiling the grunts that May was fighting started to get scared and forgot all about fighting May. They started running to try and get out of the cavern. Which was a good thing, because it gave May time to reach behind her back and grab the metal tube with two crystals at the end. She raised it above her head and the two crystals glowed red, lengthening into a staff that separated into a 'Y' shape at the top. Between the two tips a red energy that looked like a flame appeared. May slammed the lower end of her staff into the ground and a beam of red energy shot up from it and spread outward, transforming into a dome covering the entire cavern, stopping the rocks from crashing into them. When the grunts saw the red barrier fall in place in front of the hallway leading to the entrance of the cavern, they stopped and forced themselves back, not wanting to touch the barrier, not knowing what had created it, or why.

As the large dome was created, the one surrounding Max disappeared, May's concentration not being good enough to maintain a barrier the size she needed as well as the different type of barrier that she had used on Max earlier. Her control of her barrier wavered however, and it started to bulge inward as two grunts approached her and started yelling, "What are you doing?!" seeing the red beam attaching the dome to her staff. "Stop whatever it is you're doing to create that barrier, we need to go _now_!"

May started to sweat under the stress of maintaining her barrier as she said, "Can't…no time…to get out!"

"What? What do you mean there's no time?!" An aqua grunt demanded. "We left the doors wide open when we got here!"

"They've…closed…tunnel…collapsed already!"

"It's…!" The Team Magma grunt exclaimed. "They wouldn't have…surely?"

"Heh…Sur…prised…are you? Hurry! _Please…can't hold much…lon…gerrryahhh!_ " May screamed forcing more power into the barrier keeping the whole mountain at bay. The barrier stabilised as Camerupt and Magcargo were returned to their pokéballs outside and the three responsible flew away. May let out heavy, calming, breaths, relieved that she didn't need to fight against two Pokémon as well as holding up a mountain by herself anymore.

The grunts in front of her looked confused as May calmed down and the Magma grunt asked, "Uhh…why are you so calm now? You do realise that we are still trapped in here, right?"

May grinned and said, "Heh, now that Camerupt and Magcargo are gone, maintaining a barrier like this is easy."

"That's great 'n' all, really. But we're still trapped in her and no one will bother coming to get us."

"That's easy. It's a one way barrier."

"It's a…" the Magma and Aqua grunts said at the same time. Then they looked at her confused and said, "What's your point?"

May said, "Despite being a goon, you're just like me, aren't you?"

" _Us_ like _you_?" the Team Aqua grunt said.

The magma grunt said, "Maybe one of those rocks got through and hit your head."

May grunted and said, " _Very funny._ No. I'm just a trainer with a side job."

"A…" the grunts looked at each other and the Team Magma grunt said, "Well, when you put it like that, I guess, kinda."

May said, "Then use your damn head and think of a way out of here! Even if maintaining this barrier _is_ easy, I can't do it forever." May thought, ' _It's pretty obvious, but_ I _can't do it since Flygon's already used up the amount of times that it can use Dig. I guess that I should have gotten Nurse Joy to heal_ it _too._ '

May saw the two grunts look at each other in confusion and was about to yell at them, but was both relieved and annoyed, when she heard Max's voice from somewhere saying, "We can use our Pokémon to dig our way out."

She saw the two grunts roll their eyes, seeing that they had been overlooking the obvious, trying to think of some way that involved the use of the structure. May thought, " _Max!_ "

' _May?! Where are you?_ '

 _"Where do you think I am?"_ May snapped.

 _'Urk!'_ Max gulped, realising that it was really pretty obvious. _'Okay, so what do you want?'_

 _"I_ hope _that you aren't planning to try and flee with your Team Aqua friends."_

 _'Well…you really have given me little choice after what you did. If I stuck around with you after you attacked both sides, they'd_ know _something was up.'_

 _"_ Max _! This_ isn't _a game you're playing! Both Team Aqua_ and _Team Magma have changed since the time we tackled them with Ash and Brock."_

 _'I know. That's why we're working with Team Aqua, to squash Team Magma before moving on them.'_

 _"Do you_ really _think that they are that stupid? That they won't be prepared for something like that?"_

 _'It certainly worked last time.'_

 _"That time was different. Back then they were more concerned about preventing the other team from completing their goal."_

 _'Well, it's been good talkin' to ya sis', but the way's clear.'_

 _"Do you want to know the purpose of this temple?"_

 _'Temple?'_ Max thought. May heard the curiosity in her brother that she knew her statement was going to bring. ' _What do you mean 'temple'? I thought that it was just some megalith.'_

 _"Stick around and I'll tell you. I'm sure your friends would like to know, wouldn't they?"_

 _'MMNRRGHHH…'_ Max thought, trying to decide exactly what was going to be the best solution. Keep his cover one hundred percent untainted, or let it get shadowed for extra information that may go some way to getting him closer to the boss of Team Aqua. Max sighed and thought, ' _You_ better _not be lying to me May.'_

 _"I wouldn't lie. Not about this."_

 _'Not about 'this'? What's so important about that temple?'_

Max could hear the grin in her voice as his sister communicated, _"Uh, uh, uhhh, Max. Not getting it that easy."_ May heard her brother mumbling through their connection, and grinned, confusing the two grunts that were still with her.

When the mass of grunts had depleted, the two grunts in front of May said, "Well, uhh…thanks for everything, besides, well…you know…"

"Yeah," May said. "Now, go, get out of here!"

The Team Aqua grunt asked, "What about you?"

"I'll be fine," May grinned. She nodded towards the exit. "I've got to stay here until the last person has left."

"But why are you saving us?"

"Because, we're still all humans, aren't we?"

"Because we're…" the two grunts looked at each other and blinked. They shook their heads and the Team Aqua grunt said, "You're one strange broad alright."

"Yeah, what he said."

"Hey!" May exclaimed.

"Just so you know. If we see each other again, I will still likely have to fight you again."

"Yeah," May said.

The Team Magma grunt said, "So with that in mind…" both grunts bowed to her, saying, "Thank you," before running for the exit.

When all of the grunts that had been left behind were gone, May turned to see Max walking towards her from where he had hidden near the temple while the rest of them were fleeing. She pulled her staff from the ground, still keeping it extended above her so that the barrier was kept in place. And she walked up the stairs of the temple and into it with her brother, who had met her at the bottom of the stairs leading up it. When they were both in, May cut the power to the barrier and let out a sigh of relief, falling to the floor of the corridor that she and her brother were in. She sat there as the roof finally fell in, no longer being held back by May's barrier. May gasped, "Finally!" shrinking her staff to its 'carry mode'.

"Wow sis," Max said, looking down at May. "I didn't know that you were that strong." He shook his head and said, "Wo-wa-wait…since exactly _when_ have _you_ been an Aura Guardian?! And _how_ are you one? Only Ash could activate the time flowers back in Rota Kingdom!"

"That's right Max," May said, shifting around so that her back was against the wall and she raised her left leg up and rested her elbow on it and wiped her face. "And Ash is _still_ the only one that can. You see, aura tends to fluctuate within the human body at different rates. And the time flowers' aura fluctuates on the same…I suppose wavelength would be the best way to describe it, as Ash's does. That's why he can activate them and I can't."

"Really?"

"Yes," May grinned. "It really was rather annoying at the time, but hey, we all have our can's and can not's."

"I guess?" Max shrugged.

"Speaking of which…" May said, narrowing her eyes at Max. "Exactly how long have you had those powers and how much have you used them?"

"My…"

" _Max_ tell me _NOW!_ " May demanded.

"Geez May," Max said, thinking, ' _May's getting angrier than she does when someone steals her lunch!_ ' "Calm down would you."

" _Maaaaaxxxx! Answer me NOW!"_

"Alright! Mum taught me while you were competing in the Kalos Contest Circuit. Why are you angry?"

May sighed and said, "Oh thank god."

"Those powers are detrimental to the user Max."

"They're…detrimental? What do you mean?"

"While it is true that you can draw great strength from them, they increase the body's drain on its resources."

"It's resources?"

"Yes Max. Those powers use your body's blood, water and energy reserves at a far greater rate than your body can cope with."

"What?!" Max exclaimed. Even if that's true, that doesn't explain why I couldn't break through your barrier before!"

May sighed and said, "That's just how my powers work Max."

"It's…how they work?"

"An Aura Guardian uses their aura and combines it with the aura of the atmosphere around them to make use of their abilities."

"Seriously!" May nodded. "Well, that would explain _that_ I suppose. But if that's the case, why did we defeat you 'back then'."

"Heh, we willingly pulled back ourselves."

"What!?" Max exclaimed, dumbfounded by his sister's explanation.

"Is it really that surprising? We can see aura Max. Those powers suppress the aura of the user's and turn it dark."

"They turn my aura dark?"

"Yes. And at a certain point, if you use them for long enough, they will eat away at your emotions first and then, when they strip you of that, and you think that you have nothing left, they start on your body itself, leaving you an emaciated shell. We backed off back then, to save you lot from yourselves. The real question is, why did you lot rise against us?"

"Hn, you were a threat to the world and needed to be eliminated."

"Exc _use_ me? _Us?_ A threat? Given everything that you've seen with your own eyes and experienced, do you _really_ believe that we were ever a threat to the _world_?"

"I doubt it. From the leaders perspective back then, it could have been a 'if it _can_ potentially pose a threat, then we must treat it as an absolute certainty'."

"That's petty selfishness Max, and you know it."

"Maybe so. But in any case, you called this a temple, didn't you?"

"Yes. I did. And it should _never_ have been found, let alone reused."

"Reused?" Max asked, frowning. "Used for what?"

May sighed and pushed herself up. "Come on, I'll show you." May nodded towards the interior and started down the corridor. As she walked she said, "You know the legend of the ancient war between Kyogre and Groudon, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"What is it?"

"Don't you know it?"

"Yes. But the one _I_ know, is a little different to the one that you probably do."

"It's different? Different how?"

"Just start already."

Max sighed and said, "Fine. Once upon a time, a really long time ago, Thousands of years ago, during the primal age, the world was overflowing with natural energy. Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre fought over that energy in endless clashes. In the face of their great power, people could do nothing. But Rayquaza intervened, and its power overwhelmed that of the two Primal Pokémon, and peace returned to the world. A thousand years later, a meteoroid hit the earth, causing cracks in the ground that unleashed natural energy, causing Groudon and Kyogre to engage in battle once again. Humans had a collective memory of how Rayquaza saved their race long ago. That wish, combined with the power of the Meteorite, allowed Rayquaza to Mega Evolve for the first time and calm the two titans once more."

"Yeah, that's about what I thought."

"What's your version?"

"Well, to be honest, yours _is_ right, but it's also missing a few elements."

"What do you mean?"

May sighed and said, "The 'natural energy' that you were talking about, is aura itself."

"It's…aura?"

"Yes. Back then the Hoenn Region was separated into two kingdoms. One worshipped Kyogre and one worshipped Groudon. At their peak, they somehow managed to decide to do the same thing at the same time, and came up with the same method to achieve it."

"What did they do?" Max asked as they reached the central chamber.

May said, "They used this device Max," pointing at the altar in the centre of the room.

"What does it do?"

"It uses aura in order to create a Red Orb."

"It…but how?"

"These lines, that you've seen throughout the temple, are aura crystals that, unfortunately resonates perfectly with my aura."

"With yours?"

"Yes. Why else do you think that it activated when I got here?"

"Huh, I don't think I really thought about it that much."

"In any case, both kingdoms researched their respective deity and found that they use aura, what they called 'natural energy', in different ways. That's why the two deities are almost always fighting when someone sees them together. Anyway, with that done, they came up with a number of theories to try and pacify them so that they could get close to their respected deity. Unfortunately, it turns out that the method that they came up with, only worked for the other nations deity. So, being good neighbours, they decided to swap the two orbs so that they could both be closer to their deity."

"That sounds fair enough," Max said.

"Wait for it Max, I'm not finished. What happened after the switch was what brought about the legend that you just related to me."

"What happened?"

"They brought their respective orb to their High Temple…"

"This thing?"

"No Max. Weren't you listening," May asked exasperatedly. " _This_ is where the Red Orb was researched and created by Magmadir Kingdom. Even _I_ don't know where the High Temples were. _When_ the orbs were _there_ , the high priests…activated…the orbs and called forth their respective deity. That's when the problem with the orbs showed itself."

"The problem?"

"The orbs _did_ work, and called forth both Groudon and Kyogre. Unfortunately, the concentration of aura in and around the orbs was too great and caused the two gods go undergo a transformation."

"A transformation? Into what?"

"The legend said it itself. They underwent what they called Primal Reversion, and started attacking everything, and everyone. Nothing was safe from its grasp. Stupidly, the leaders thought that the other kingdom had set out to deceive them and gain their lands for themselves, and set about trying to pacify their gods with a different combination of materials in a different orb. That was ineffective in doing much other than granting the gods control over the person wielding the second orbs."

"Wait. The _second_ orbs?"

"Yes. _Those_ are the ones that were destroyed during the incident that happened when we were with Ash and Brock. This altar was used to create the original orb that the Wykyrogal Kingdom used to summon Kyogre."

"If that's the case, why wasn't this temple destroyed?"

"Because, there was too much aura floating around at the time."

"So what?"

May sighed and said, "You haven't been listening to a word I said, have you?"

"No! I've listened. You just haven't told me wh…wait. You said that the lines in this temple reacted to your use of aura. That means that aura is flowing throughout this temple, doesn't it?"

"There you go," May said. "Aura seeps into the stone through the crystals embedded into it. Back then the temple would have been lit up almost constantly. So the only way that the people back then could ensure that no one else made another orb, was to hide it. Of course, we know how well _that_ worked out, don't we?"

"Yeah. So, since there isn't so much aura floating around now, can we destroy it?"

"No."

"No?"

"I was using my powers constantly, even before I appeared through the roof. I'm afraid that this things gonna be staying here for a good while yet."

"Then why are we in here?"

"I needed you to understand the _true_ gravity of this situation before I did this…"

Max asked, "Did what May?" just as May slapped him. Hard. Hard enough to fall over. Max pushed himself up saying, "What was that for?"

May said, " _That_ was for your recklessness in accepting this stupid mission in the first place." Then she slapped him on the other cheek. "That was for thinking that this idiotic plan that the Pokémon league cooked up was in any way, shape or form, a good idea." Max pushed himself up, this time with his hands ready to block. It was useless though, as May brought her knee up into his crown jewels as she said, "This one, is for the worry you're causing me, Mum and Dad by taking part in this lunacy!" Max was laying on the floor, unconscious as May walked through the temple and too every single item that she could find that conducted aura and stowed it on her before releasing Charizard and flying out of the hanger bay, heading back to the mainland, a satisfied smile on her face.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Please review people, it helps keep the creative juices flowing, and me interested in continuing on with this story.


	9. The True Source Of Power

While they were eating dinner Ash snapped his head up, looking straight through the ceiling and frowned in confused consternation, thinking, ' _How is that posssible? Well, without my staff I can't be sure so I might very well be imagining things._ '

Adria asked, "Something wrong?"

"No. just thought I heard something is all."

"Oh," Adria shrugged. "If you say so."

"I do," Ash grinned reassuringly.

Adria thought, ' _Hmmm…something's up about him. Right now though it's just a feeling, so I can't go to Erica-sensei or Courtney yet.'_

Two weeks later, Adria hadn't seen Ash doing anything out of the ordinary, except for that weird meditation thing that he liked to do after he got up and before they went to bed. When they were done for the day Adria said to Ash, "Hey, do you want to go into Volley Town tomorrow?"

"Volley Town? Isn't that deserted? Not to mention in the middle of nowhere?"

Adria grinned and said, "Nope. Recently people have moved back in and the town is thriving. It's mostly due to the massive arena that they built there."

"Arena?"

"You haven't heard of it?"

"I haven't been back to Hoenn in a while," Ash said as he thought, ' _Granted, I was only going back home to get my affairs in order._ '

"I see," Adria said. "Well, it's used for lots of things."

"Such as?"

"Contests mainly, but from time to time ther'll be a gym leader tournament held to determine where the gyms are ranked."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Must be some pretty epic battles held there then."

"You'd be surprised. Most of them are actually cakewalks. But every three months or so they will host the Battle Tower Tournament here."

"Battle Tower Tournament?"

"Yeah. Trainers from all 'round come to compete in it, with the winner getting to battle against one of the Frontier Brains."

"Really?" Ash asked, thinking, ' _That's not good. Maybe I shouldn't…but…ah, what the heck, everyone needs a break now and then._ ' With that thought in mind, Ash said, "Sure, why not? It'll be good to get away from this place for a bit."

"Great!" Adria exclaimed as she and Ash finished their meals.

The next morning Ash and Adria got dressed, not in their Team Magma Reds, but in normal clothes. Ash was wearing the same ones that he had been wearing when Team Magma first picked him up outside that bar. Adria was wearing a black, plait, mini skirt, black thigh-high socks, black sneakers, a black camisole and a black longline vest. She covered her blonde hair in a pony tails and was wearing black straw hat. Seeing Ash blink when he saw her, she asked, "Something wrong?"

"No, I just wasn't expecting you to wear so much black is all."

Adria replied, "Oh, right. When I was training with Koga, everything that I owned was black. I guess it just hasn't quite left my system," adjusting the satchel that she was carrying over her shoulder that had all of her pokéballs in slots on the outside.

They were both carrying all six pokéballs that they had received from Team Magma because, even if they _did_ automatically decry their being in Team Magma they did still need to be able to protect themselves from wild Pokémon. As they left the compound, Adria called to the guard, "Hey Charlie, do you want anything from the town?"

Charlie called out, "Nay, Lyla got me some grog when she came back yesterday."

"Ah, right," Adria said. She then exited the gate and turned left, leading them in the direction of Volley Town.

As they walked, Ash asked, "'Charlie'?"

"Yeah. He was one of the better trainers that they tried to partner me up with. He passed when they partnered him with Lyla and we've remained frineds ever since."

"'S'at so? Wait. If he lost when you battled against him, why'd…or rather _how_ did you get to know him?"

"Well, back then they started battle training together two weeks after first meeting them. After a few shots at they with me though they gave that up and changed it so that they paired you off with someone of the same level as you are as a trainer."

"I see. Makes sense," Ash said, the logic readily apparent so that even his younger self would ave been able to see it.

They continued on for a bit more in a kind of pseudo-comfortable silence until Ash saw something that made him blink in amazed confusion at something growing on the side of the road that they were walking down. Adria, seeing the look on Ash's face, looked at him worriedly and asked, "What's wrong Ash?"

Ash frowned and said, "Something that shouldn't be here."

"Something that shouldn't…What are you talking about?"

Ash just grinned and saidm, "Want to see a neat trick?"

"A…what are you talking about now? Don't dodge the question. _What_ shouldn't be here?!"

"This…" Ash said, as he walked over to the side of the road and picked something up. He held it up to Adria and said, "…is called a time flower, and they _should_ only grow in the now defunct Rota Kingdom in the Kanto Region."

"In the…then what the heck is it doing _here_?"

"I don't know," Ash said. As he answered Adria he thought, ' _Although…that feeling that I had two weeks ago…could it bave…!?_ '

"Okay," Adria said, "so what's the trick."

"Oh! Right!" Ash exclaimed. "It's this," letting his aura flow into the time flower. From it as holographic image appeared, shoring Ash and Adria's entire conversation since he had picked it up.

"Wow!" that's…pretty cool!" Adria said. "Here, give it to me. I want to have a go!"

"Alright, Ash shrugged, "but you might be disappointed."

"I might be…why?" Adria asked as she took it from Ash's outstretched hand.

Ash was surprised when, after about thirty seconds or so, the flower emitted a dim yellow glow, but that was all that happened before it shut down. He narrowed his eyes and thought, ' _That's what happens when May touches a time flower now that she's been trained. Is Adria a…?_ '

Seeing the look that Ash was giving her, Adria blinked in confusion and asked, "What? Is there something on my face?"

"No," Ash said, a look more serious than any other that she had seen appearing on his face. He said, "Tell me the truth Adria. Have you been trained in the use of Aura?"

"Aura? What the heck's that?"

"Every living thing has aura within them, though not many still remember, let alone possess the ability to use it."

"Aura…"Adria hesitantly said. She thought, ' _It sounds a lot like the Qi that koga-sensei taught me about._ ' "No," she said, "I've never heard of it before. Why? Does that have something to do with the flower?"

"Yes. Certain aura's can interact with other aura's in different ways. Mine, interacts really easily with time flowers, like you just saw."

"Then why did you ask me if I could use this aura thing?"

"Because, you May not have seen it, but the flower _did_ react to your aura, but because it wasn't the right type, it didn't move onto the next step."

"I see. I guess that that makes sense. Mmm…" Adria said, considering telling Ash about her secondary training with Koga. Instead, she asked, "So, have you had any training in this aura thing?"

"Yes, but I'd like it if you would keep it a secret though."

"A secret? Sure, I guess," Adria said, shrugging a shoulder, seeing no reason to be worried about anything coming form the revelation.

Ash mentally sighed in relief, thinking, ' _Thank Ho-Oh for_ that _. If May and I_ are _right, then both Team Magma and Team Aqua have transformed into modern-day versions of the latter days of those two kingdoms. That means that they no longer care about 'saving' the world and are more interested in the destructive aspects of Hoenn's two deities. If that really_ is _the case, then it's also possible that they know of the intervention of the Aura Guardians last time they tried this and May, Riley and I will have massive targets on our backs, as well as on the backs of our families and friends. Of course, that's only if they haven't already realised what May is from her attempt to stop them before they could recreate the first orb._ ' He noticed Adria's sclera glowing yellow and thought, ' _So, not aura, but something similar…or possibly an alternate application?_ ' He shrugged.' _Well, if she doesn't want to tell me yet, that's her business. It also means that I can trust her to keep mine too._ ' He said, "So, wanna see another trick?"

"There's _more_?!" Adria exclaimed.

"Yep, Ash said, extending his hand, silently asking for the time flower back. When Adria had done so, she saw Ash's eyes glow blue, like they had weeks ago, and he clasped his other hand over the time flower, the same blue energy shining through his fingers. Ash concentrated on controlling his aura like riley had taught him as his powers weren't usually used for things like this. After about two minutes Ash reopened his hands and, in place of the time flower, was a blue, green and purple-red crystal, a lot smaller, but shaped just like the flower had been, though the roots had remained untouched.

Adria blinked in amazement and said, "Woah!" then, hesitantly asked, "Can I touch it?"

"Yeah, sure," Ash shrugged, seeing no problem with the request since her aura hadn't caused the time flower to respond.

Adria turned it over in her hand, examining it from every angle. When Ash saw her trying to break it, he said, "Okay, okay. That's enough of that. I'll take it back now thanks very much." Adria shrugged and handed it back over. "Thanks," Ash said, putting the crystal into one of the pouches on his Team Magma-given pokébelt. As they started walking again, Ash turned to Adria and said, "Hey Adria, do you know if there are any jewellery shops in Volley Town?"

"Jewellery shops? I didn't take you for the type."

Ash grunted and thought, ' _Normally you'd be right, but until I get my hands on my staff again, this cryystal'll have to do._ ' He said, "Yeah, well, we've really only just met."

Adria shrugged and said, "Yeah, I guess. And the answer to your question, is yes. There are a few, but you might have an issue getting _that_ put into a ring."

"Really? Why's that?"

"Uhh…money. Your license _was_ revoked, right?"

"Yeah. But the Pokémon league doesn't have the authority to freeze my accounts and I reached the finals in every League Competition that I competed in, that gets you a lot in prize money. Then there's the gambling side of it too."

"Wait. You _bet_ on your matches?"

"Yeah. Although apparently they have some problems when you try and bet against yourself."

"Yeah, I guess that that kind of makes sense."

"Yeah, though I didn't get it before they explained it ot me."

"When was that?"

"When I was about fifteen or sixteen."

"Which was it? _Fif_ teenor _six_ teen?"

"It was about seven years or so ago now. I can't really remember that well, alright?"

"Yeah. That makes sense I guess. So…that was when you were in Sinnoh, yeah?"

"Something like that," Ash said as they reached Volley Town. It didn't take them very long to locate a jeweller and they went into the store. When they were inside Ash saw Adria immediately go 'gaga' over all of the jewellery that the store stocked. Ash rolled his eyes and went up to the person that was standing behind a desk with a glass door and top, showing even more of his wares. He said, "Hi. I take it that you work here?" stating the obvious.

The owner joked, "I'm this side of the desk, arent i?"

Ash grunted and said, "I guess so.

"So, what can I do you far sonny? Something for your girlfriend over there?"

"No," Ash said, feeling a small amount of amusement at the question. "She's not my girlfriend." As he talked to the owner of the store, he thought, _'My girlfriend isn't really the type for jewellery. Clothes maybe, but not jewellery, she thinks that it's too much of a hassle to carry around, and, according to her, match it to her different outfits, or some such crap._ '

"Okay," the store owner said, "Then why _are_ you here?"

"I want something done for me."

"'S'at right?"

"Yes."

"So, what do _you_ want then?"

"I was wondering if you did any custom work?"

"Not really 'round 'ere, but I do still have my tools from the last place that I worked at."

"Oh?" Ash said. "Where was that?"

"Silver Rock Isle in the Johto Region."

Ash raised his eyebrow and asked, "Would you happen to still have any silver rock lying around?"

"Depends. What do you want it for?"

"A ring."

"A ring?"

"Yeah," Ash said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the aura crystal that he had created from the time flower. "I'd like it to resemble the head of a Mega Lucario and include this crystal in the design." He handed the crystal over to the jeweller so that he could examine it.

The jeweller narrowed his eyes, looking at the crystal and turned it in his hand. He rubbed his chin, thinking about something. In the end he sighed and said, "Tell you what. You leave this here with me for a few hours and I'll see what I can come up with for you."

"Sure," Ash shrugged. Before he left though he leaned forward and said, "I _trust_ that when I come back that crystal _won't_ have mysteriously disappeared or been replaced," his eyes glowing blue.

The jeweller frowned and said, "I don't think I like what you're implyin' there sonny."

"Neither do I," Ash admitted, letting the glow fade from his eyes, "it's just that in my travels I've seen all sorts of genuine-seeming people turn into little more than petty thieves."

"I see. Well I guess that it's fair enough then. No go, have some fun with your not-girlfriend." As rolled his eyes and left the store, half-dragging Adria with him.

When his customers were gone, the frown returned to the jeweller's face and said, "Now, just what exactly _are_ you?" as he got a loupe from a drawer in the desk and lifted the crystal up to it. As he took the finer details of it in, he thought, ' _This thing. It lacks the structure of a crystal, but it's farr too coarse to be an actual gemstone. It's almost like something in between the two. But how could that be? Wait…Didn't I read about something similar in one of my great great grandfather's notes? I wonder…do I still…_ ' he then got up, moved around the desk, closed the store and went out the back before he went up two flights of stairs to his 'library'. Though he referred to it as a library, in reality it was just a room with an armchair in it and one wall had a bookcase that was full with every book that he owned. He immediately moved to where he kept the journals of his ancestors and picked up his great great grandfather's before sitting down in the armchair to read it.

 _PY 1799,12,9._

 _Today a strange customer came into my store and requested that I make her an armlet and embed a strange stone that had some weird symbol on it. Even stranger was that she wanted me to style it in the form of one of her Pokémon. I'd never seen its like before. It was really odd. It looked as if it was wearing pink baggy pants and some stupid hat, though I can't for the life of me imagine why she'd do that to her Pokémon. She was actually pretty hot, but the request soured me to her. So I told her that I'd fill her request, as long as she let me examine some weird jewel that she had set into the top of her staff. I only wanted to do so because it looked like those new pokéball things that little Erica is going on about. She's probably just jealous because the rich parents of her friend just got their daughter one. Maybe in a few years the price will drop. We'll just have to wait until then. That's if she's still interested then. But, if she'd like her mother she'll probably end up…_

The jeweller skipped ahead, having little use for his great great grandfather's griping about his daughter.

… _when I placed my loupe against the pokéball-esque gem, I was surprised. It was unlike anything that I'd seen before. It was almost too pure to be classified as a gemstone. I asked her where she got it, but she refused to tell me, though she_ did _say that even if I did go to where she got it, it wouldn't do me any good. I pushed her, telling her that I wouldn't do it unless she told me. She left my store so I called the other jewellers and got them to blacklist her, so she came back later and, I swear, her eyes were glowing yellow. It was almost scary, the way her voice echoed around the store. I forced myself to hold my ground though and eventually she caved in and told me where she found it. Apparently it was in some place called 'The Dragon's Holy Land'. Luckily I'm from the Hoenn Region and dragon types abound over there. I think that I'll take a week next month to find this Den of Dragons._

The jeweller thought, ' _I have ancestors from Hoenn too? Who knew?_ ' and flipped forward a month in the journal.

… _Sigh. Well, she was right. I didn't find a damn thing. Well, I_ did _find a strange glass-like yellow leaf, but they were far too fragile for what I saw in the pokéball-crystal on that lady's staff. Sigh. I guess I'll never get to the bottom of the mystery of that crystal. Wait! Now that I think about it, back home there was a rumour about some organisation that could make use of some kind of weird energy. They were supposed to usually be seen with a staff and a fighting type. I suppose that it's_ possible _that she's related to them, but I thought that it had been destroyed decades ago in a big war against…who was it again…? Well, I suppose that it doesn't matter really. I'll probably never see her again anyway._

The jeweller sighed and said, "So, _he_ could be from some super secret organisation from centuries ago…or, at least the remnants of it anyway. If that's the case, then I don't think that I want to mess with him. He seemed far more willing to use force to get what he wanted than that lady that my great great grandpa was dealing with." He sighed again and said, "Well, better get to it. First things first though, what the heck _is_ a Mega Lucario?"

A few hours later Ash and Adria returned and the jeweller started flipping through a series of designs for Ash to see. While they were doing that, he asked, "If you don't mind me asking, why did you specify silver rock as the base?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, there are a few reasons really, but the main one is just that not that many people _know_ about silver rock that aren't from Silver Rock Isle."

"Oh. That. I competed in the whirl cup."

"You _competed_ in it?!"

"Yeah. I got into the top eight too, but my totodile just wasn't strong enough, leaving kingler to beat two basically fully healed Pokémon by itself."

"I see. That's too bad."

"Yeah. Tell me about it. If I could enter it again, it'd be a _very_ different story."

" _If_?" the jeweller asked as Ash flipped through more designs.

"The Pokémon League thought that I cheated during a gym match and rev oked my trainer license."

"Seriously?!...then…how'd you make it all the way out here?"

"Well, I've got a pretty good bodyguard over there…" Ash said, shaking his thumb towards Adria. "…and I'm pretty tough too, even without my Pokémon."

The jeweller said, "Tell you what, why don't I just use the last design?"

"The last one?"? Ash asked as he flipped to the lback of the book.

The jeweller explained, "The blue of the crystal that you ggave me would be attached to the base of the ring and the markings on its face would be made of silver rock. It would also be used to reinforce the ears and make the six things extending from the back of its head. The red crystal would be attached to the ends of them and embedded in the blue crystal for the eyes. How does that sound?"

"It sounds great!" Ash excitedly said, thinking, ' _That much silver rock might just be able to reinforce the crystal's bower, letting me do_ that _. It'll still be a poor substitute for my staves, but hey, in the end you've gotta make do with what you have at hand._ ' He said, "So, how much will it be?"

"Hmm…let's say…twenty five hundred."

"2500? Su…"

"Hey!" Adria yelled. "That's _way_ too much for a ring that he'd providing the gemstone for!"

The jeweller said, "Look girlie, normally you might be right, but for this order I need to smelt some of my stock to get the silver rock and I've never worked with anything _close_ to resembling the crystal that he wants me to work into it. All of that will take a lot of time. Time which this store will need to be shut down for."

"I…see…"Adria said, gulping at the anger displayed by the jeweller.

Ash sighed, gaining the attention of both Adria and the jeweller. He said, "Don't worry about it Adria. Twenty five hundred really _is_ a little price to pay for what I'm getting out of this."

" _Really_?" Adria pointedly asked, not believing him.

"Yes," Ash said, smiling and nodding silently. Seeing that his partner had calmed down somewhat, Ash turned back to the jeweller and asked, "So,m how long?"

"How long? Hmm…I'd say…about six weeks."

"Six _weeks!_ " Ash exclaimed. "I don't have that long."

"So, a rush job is it?" Ash nodded, dumbstruck by the amount of time that it would take. The jeweller sighed and said, "Tell you what. 'Cause I like you, I'll shut down shop and focus everything I have for your ring. That way it _should_ be ready in a few days."

Ash let out a sigh of relief and said, "Thank you. Really. You've no _idea_ how good that is to hear."

"Ye-eah…about that…"

"Hmm?" Ash queried, raising both eyebrows.

"I'll also have to double the price."

"Seriously?!" Ash exclaimed as, even if he _did_ have the money, in spades, it _was_ still five grand.

"Yeah. Store policy. Rush jobs cost double."

"I see," Ash said, resigned to the cost increase. He said, "Fine. If you insist," And shrugged, as if to reinforce his consent.

Ash went back to the store with Adria three days later and he was pleasantly surprised to see that the Mega Lucario ring that he'd commissioned looked even fiercer than the drawing had made it out to be. When he had it in his hands Ash immediately puit it on and felt the power within it and was shocked. He blinked, thinking, ' _This is…it's almost as powerful as one of my staves! That silver rock sure did a good job at reinforcing the aura crystal's power._ '

The jeweller then handed a box over to Ash, saying, "I don't know if you use them, but there was enough crystal and silver rock left to make a pair of cufflinks for you."

"Seriously?!" Ash exclaimed, opening the box and seeing that they were in the distinctive silver wing pattern used in just about everything on Silver Rock Isle. He thought, ' _These will come in handy if Adria and I ever need to infiltrate some hoity-toity to-do._ ' He said, "So, do I owe you any extra for the cufflinks?"

"No. you're already being forced to pay double what those items are really work, so it's on the house." When the store owner saw Ash seeming to consider paying extra anyway, he said, "Oh! Before I forget…" and reached into the drawer in the desk again. "Here," he said, tossing the elongated box in his hand to Adria. "These're for you."

"They're for…what are the…" Adria's eyes widened as she opened the box. She said, "I can't!" seeing the pendant necklace and matching ring that had the same blue crystal set into them."

"Don't be ridiculous," the storeowner said. "Those aren't silver rock. They're just set in some spare bases that I had lying around. Like you said, five grand for that ring really was too much, besides, I kind of got the feeling that if I didn't use them for the pair of you, this guy here would be asking for the crystal fragments back anyway."

"We-el-ll," Ash said, tilting his head to the left and shrugging his right shoulder, admitting that the jeweller was right.

"In that case…thank you, thank you very much," Adria said, a blank look on her face, still stunned by what the jeweller had done. She left the store as Ash paid, not wanting to let the jeweller have any second thoughts about what he'd done.

As Ash left the store, the jeweller thought, ' _I don't know what the relationship between those two is, but I hope that those things help them somehow._ '

As Ash walked back to the compound wearing his ring, it was easy for him to feel the power emanating from the boxes that they had been given and it was far, far, stronger than Ash had been expecting from such small items. He thought, ' _Damn! I'll_ really _need to tell Riley about this when…actually, where_ is _May? Her sensing abilities far outstrip both Riley's and my own, so finding_ me _of all people shouldn't pose too much of a problem. On top of that, it's been three weeks already! Have they come up with a system to block auric sensing? Or worse, has she been captured? If that's the case, then I'm going to have to break my cover, no matter what. But this thing with Adria being able to use aura…maybe there is a greater purpose to my being here than the coincidence that Lance was concerned about. In that case May would_ understand _my not coming for her, though she'd probably be pretty angry if she thought that there was ever the slightest possibility of me having anything remotely resembling attraction to Adria. Wait a sec. with this ring, I should be able to contact her despite either scenario. Well, hopefully anyway._ ' With that, Ash put his hand in his coat's pocket and slipped off the ring that he'd commissioned.

Ash and Adria were walking down the road, on their way back to the team magma compound, when all of a sudden the ground gave way beneath them. A few seconds later, Adria pushed herself up, off the ground, rubbing her arse as she groaned, "What the heck was that?"

Ash groaned, "It's a pitfall tra…"

But, before Ash could finish, three figures appeared above them and one with long hair sticking out from the back of her head said, "Did I hear 'what was that'?"

A masculine voice said, "You did, and that's a fact," before continuing on to say, "Since you asked, we'll tell you loud and clear."

The woman said, "Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace…"

The man said, "Dashing hope and…"

Ash interrupted them, saying, "Yeah, yeah, I know who you are Team Rocket. Although, I must admit that it _has_ been a while since I heard _that_ one."

Adria looked at Ash and then back at the three members of Team Rocket, then back to Ash and said, "Do you _know_ these three jerks?"

Ash sighed and said, "Yeah. It's odd, but ever since I began my journey I've never actually been able to get rid of them."

"Have you tried contacting Officer Jenny?"

"Yeah. I've worked with them a bunch of times, but they always manage to get away and find me again." Ash thought, ' _Actually, they could actually be of use for once,_ ' and slipped his ring back on. He looked at Adria and asked, "Can you get out?"

"Yeah," Adria said. As soon as she had, her sclera glowed yellow.

Ash, having just activated his aura sight, causing his eyes to glow blue, saw Adria pushing her aura to her calves, feet, forearms and hands. As he watched her bound from one side of the pit to the other, he saw several smallish yellow…globule type things on the side of the walls that she was using to anchor herself to the walls with, he thought, ' _That's just like…well, we can deal with_ that _later. For now…_ ' he lifted his hand out of his pocket, the ring on. He surrounded himself in an aura barrier and rose up out of the pit, letting the barrier flicker in and out of 'normal sight'. When he was above the pit, he released the 'barrier' part of his manipulation and instead used it to create a 'floor' for him to stand on above the pit. He sighed and said, "You three jokers. I should have known. Although, thinking back, it has been a while since you tried _that_ one."

"Can't beat a classic," Meowth said.

"Uhh… these three friends of yours Ash?" Adria asked.

"Not exactly, but we go way back," Ash said, sighing again, more exasperated than annoyed.

After that, Ash's ring glowed and he James heard, _"That's why I know that I can trust you with this,"_ in his head.

James thought, ' _Am I going crazy? I could almost swear that I just heard the twerp._ '

 _"You're not crazy James, though I think that I'm a bit too old to be called a 'twerp' now, don't you?"_

 _'Maybe so, but old habits die hard.'_

 _"I guess so,"_ Ash communicated. _"Which means that I'll need to be quick about this before jessie pisses off Adria."_

 _'Quick about what?'_

 _"I need you to do something for me, and I need you to do it as quickly as possible. Alright?"_

 _'It depends what it is.'_

 _"Fair enough. When push comes to shove, I_ know _that you'll do the right thing. I need you to go to Pallet Town and get my Mum to give you my staves and take them to Giovanni."_

 _'Giovanni flew the coop a few years ago.'_

 _"You lot are still members of Team Rocket. That means that someone took the reigns. It doesn't matter who that is, just get those staves to them."_

 _'I see. Why do you want that though?'_

 _"Be with your boss at say… eight o'clock…five days from now with those staves and you'll find out then."_

 _'Five days? I'm afraid that there may be a problem with that.'_

 _"Why?"_

 _'Team Rocket HQ moved to Johto after that business with the Viridian City Gym. Getting to Pallet Town itself within five days will be a bit of a task. Getting to Team Rocket HQ, is just not possible in that timeframe.'_

Ash mentally sighed and communicated, _"Fine. Just tell Professor Oak that I've given you permission to use two of my Charizard."_

 _'Two of your…? You're giving_ us _two of your Pokémon?'_

 _"_ No _. I'm_ loaning _you two of them to speed up your trip."_

 _'I see. That makes sense. But I'm afraid that your plan is still a no-go.'_

 _"Why's that?"_

 _'Both your mother_ and _Professor Oak have met us before. Or have you forgotten that fiesta fiasco from all those years ago?"_

 _"Fiesta fias…"_

 _'Before you left for the Orange Archipelago.'_

 _"Oh yeah, there_ was _that, wasn't there?"_

 _'So there you go. There is nothing but a bad end to your scenario.'_

 _"Hmm…"_ Ash mentally sighed. _"Tell mum…that I said Silver."_

 _'Silver? What does that mean?'_

 _"She'll know,"_ Ash communicated in a tone that James couldn't remember coming from him in all the time that they'd known him.

 _'Alright. I'll talk to Jessie and Meowth and see what they say.'_

 _"That's not good enough!"_ Ash yelled in James' head.James winced and Ash communicated, _"Sorry 'bout that James. It's just that the stakes involved_ this _time, are like nothing that that we've faced before. Even higher than that time with Team Galactic."_ James' face lost all of its colour. _"So you see, you_ have _to convince them, or the whole_ planet _is doomed."_

Ash cut off his communications with James, his eyes losing their glow as he saw Jessie catch fire and scream, "That's _it!_ I'm done talking, Neo-twerpette!" and grabbed a pokéball.

"Okayy…" Ash said, as he stepped off of the platform, letting the glow from his ring fade away, a fact missed by all except for Meowth, whose eyes were level with the ring. "…wait right there Jessie."

Jessie stumbled, not letting go of her pokéball. She looked at the twerp and demanded, "What is it, _this_ time, twerp?"

"I don't have Pikachu with me right now, so what point is there to battling me _now_?"

"You _don't_ have…" Jessie said, looking at Ash harder now than she had been earlier.

"Well…what about Lucario?"

"Sorry, don't have _her_ either."

"Well…why not?"

"Haven't you _read_ the Kanto News?"

"The…"

"I was stripped of my license due to the Kanto Courts overturning the ruling of the Kalos Courts' ruling about that whinging bitch of a gym leader."

"Oh yeah, there was that, wasn't there?"

" _Yeah_ ," Ash said, not needing to fake his anger about the incident. "So, if you _don't_ want to get blasted off by Adria, I _suggest_ , that you leave." Team Rocket stood looking at each other and Ash angrily said, " _Now!_ " trying to hurry them along so that they could get underway on their trip to Pallet Town already.

James said, "He _does_ have a point Jess."

"Maybe," Jessie said, "but then it's kind of like we wimped out, isn't it?"

"It's better than the other option," James said, recognising the look on Adria's face and _not_ liking where it had lead in the past.

Jessie sighed and said, "Fine. Have it your way," returning her pokéball to its place in her belt. As she walked away she said, "I'll see _you_ again Neo-twerpette! _Then_ the twerp won't be there to save you!"

James followed Jessie, saying, "Next time we'll…"

"Dat's enough!" Meowth said, pushing James along."If we don't move _now_ we gon' lose Jessie!" knowing _just_ how she got when she thought that she was being left out, or alone, and _not_ wanting to deal with that again.

When Team Rocket was gone, Adria turned to Ash and said, "So, what was _that_ all about?"

Ash sighed and said, "It's a long story," as he began walking again.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Please review people, it helps keep the creative juices flowing, and me interested in continuing on with this story.


	10. Team Rocket Enters The Mix

That night, when Jessie, James and Meowth had set up a fire, Meowth said, "So, what _was_ all dat about back dere wit' da twoip Jimbo?"

Jessie sighed and said, "Yeah…actually, you _both_ wereout of it for a while when that scrawny neo-twerpette…"

As Jessie as about to start on one of her rants, James sighed and said, "I wish that you hadn't asked me about that," as he thought, ' _though there was nothing 'scrawny' about her._ '

"Now I'm _really_ curious."

James sighed again and said, "the twerp was talking to me while we were both 'out of it', as you put it."

"What do you mean? Communicating how?"

"I don't know. With aura probably."

"Aura? Oh yeah. The twerp had that, didn't he?"

"Yes."

"So, what was he saying?"

"Apparently the world is in a bit of a pinch and he needs us to take something of his from Pallet Town to The Boss."

"He must be pretty desperate if he's turning to _us_ for assistance."

"From how he sounded, I gather that he didn't have anywhere else to go."

"I see. So, do you think that we should do it?"

"I, for one, vote yes," James said.

"I'm not so sure," Meowth said.

"Why not?" Jessie and James asked.

"Because, it's da twoip. Once we're done he'll probably toin us ova ta da cops!"

James said, "I don't think that he'd do that."

Jessie said, "You're right James, which means that we'd be doing him a favour…" a calculating look falling over her face.

"Dat means dat _he'll_ owe _us_ one!" Meowth exclaimed. "I'm changin' my ansa ta an affoimative."

"Alri-ight!" Jessie said in a sing-song voice.

As Jessie and Meowth changed their minds, James thought, ' _That's_ never _going to happen. But I suppose if it gets them to play along, then it doesn't really matter. In this case, the ends really_ do _justify the means._ '

When Jessie and Meowth were done congratulating themselves on figuring out how to make the best of the situation, miraculously without any fantasy scene being narrated by Meowth; Meowth said, "So, is dere a time limit?"

"Yes," James said. "He's given us five days."

"Five days?! Dat's impawsible! It's gonna take us at least a week in da balloon."

James sighed and said, "That's why we're going to have to make our way to Pallet Town legitimately."

"Le…" Meowth got out before Jessie started laughing.

Jessie said, "James, we've always gone out of our way to _avoid_ doing that. You _know_ this."

"That's true Jess," James allowed. "But the twerp seemed to think that time was of great need, so I think that this time calls for a different approach from our usual ways."

"James, you're acting…different…to how you usually do," Jessie said, unsure how she felt about this new James.

"This time there is no room for stuff-ups, so one of us needs to change, and since the twerp trusted _me_ with his message, I figure that it should be yours truly."

"Hmm…I guess that's fair," Jessie said. "So, how do you propose we get to Pallet Town from here then?"

"Lilycove City isn't too far from here. There's an international port there too, so we should be able to get to Pallet Town within two to three days. From there the trip is easy."

" _Easy?_ " Meowth asked. "How do ya figa dat James? HQ is in da Johto Region."

"The twerp…gave me a way to deal with that," James said, thinking, ' _Though you're not going to like it,_ ' as he started on his way to Lilycove City.

XXXXX

That night, when Ash was in the toilet, he slipped on the ring and drew on his power and his eyes turned blue, but, this time, everything around him stayed in focus, not needing to enter the trane now that he had something to focus his powers through. He communicated, " _May!"_

 _"Ash!"_ was the immediate reply. Up next was, _"Where the hell have you been?!"_

 _"That's what_ I _was going to ask_ you _!"_

 _"You were…wait. So you've been in the same place this entire time?"_

 _"Yes. Why?"_

 _"I've been trying to get through to you every day, but for some reason my attempts have been blocked."_

 _"Really? I wonder how."_

 _"I've got a theory, but it would be better to get Riley's thoughts on_ that _. That aside, how are you contacting me_ now _?"_

 _"You're not going to believe this May."_

 _"Oh?_ Do _go on."_

 _"I found a time flower on the side of the road the other day."_

 _"You found a…but how? Those only exist because of the…wait. That tree was saved because you and Lucario offered up your aura to it, right?"_

 _"That's right."_

 _"Do you think that it could be a relic of 'that time'?"_

 _"I suppose it's very possible. But I fail to see what…"_

May cut Ash off, communicating, _"When Team Magma fled the Red Temple, they took a shard of Aura-sensitive crystal. If time flowers are growing near where you are now, it's possible that that shard is somewhere near you and responsible for them growing there. But again, I'd have to check with riley to be sure. Speaking of which…"_

 _"Yeah. I'm near Volley Town. You?"_

 _"Lavaridge."_

 _"Lavaridge? What are you doing there?"_

May's voice sounded sheepish as she communicated, _"Well, since you were incommunicado, and I've never actually_ met _Riley, I figured that I could use some downtime, and the hot-sand baths here are just to die for. It also let me check in with Flannery. Wait. Did you say_ Volley Town _?"_

 _"Yeah. Why?"_

 _"Flannery was talking about some kind of Ranking Tournament coming up soon that will be held there."_

 _"Yeah. I heard about that the other day too."_

 _"Maybe I could hitch a ride with Flannery on her way there."_

 _"I don't really care_ what _you do, so long as you can get here as soon as you can."_

 _"Why? What's the rush?"_ May asked, concerned by both the urgency in Ash's voice, as well as the way that he was talking to her.

 _"I'm only going to be in training for another week. After that, who_ knows _where I'll be."_

 _"Right!"_ May gulped _, "I'll see what I can do."_

 _"That's all any of us ever can."_

 _"Very true. But I've got one more question before I go."_

 _"Okay, shoot,"_ Ash communicated.

 _"Exactly how_ are _you breaking through whatever barrier they've got set up?"_

 _"Oh. That? I used one of Riley's tricks and turned the time flower into an aura crystal and had it set into a ring that looks like a Mega Lucario."_

 _"Really?"_

 _"Yeah."_

 _"How…blatant."_

 _"Hopefully so much so that they'll overlook it if they ever find out that I had it made."_

May sighed and communicated, _"Well, in the end, all we can do is hope."_

 _"That's true. But don't forget, hope is the essence of victory."_

 _"Heh,"_ May laughed, _"and don't we know it."_

XXXXX

After Ash cut off his communication with May, she reluctantly got out of the sand bath and paid the man that owned them before ducking under a shower to wash the sand off of her. When she was done she towelled herself off and put on a black free-flowing maxi skirt, a red tank top and a pair of black thongs with red cloth straps before leaving and heading back to the Lavaridge Gym. When she got there she saw Flannery call out, "Use Flamethrower Blaziken!" and Flannery's slightly-off coloured Blaziken shot out a stream of white-hot flames that ran into a green shield protecting her grandfather's Typhlosion. When her Blaziken's flame died down, Flannery saw May and called out, "May! You're back already?"

"Yeah," May said, a somewhat apologetic look on her face.

"Why? Usually you're at those baths for hours."

"Heheh," May said, a sweatdrop appearing on the side of her head as she scratched the back of her head, knowing that her friend _was_ speaking the truth. "Yeah…I'm afraid that I couldn't do that this time."

"Why's that?"

"Ash contacted me."

"He did?!" Flannery exclaimed. "But how? I thought that you said that something was disrupting communications between the two of you."

"I did, and there was. Still is probably, but the short version is that Ash got something that allowed him to break through the barrier's effects."

"I see," Flannery said, kind of getting the gist of what May was saying, but since May hadn't given her enough information about exactly how they were communicating, she couldn't grasp the whole picture. "So, how is he?"

"He's doing rather well, under the circumstances."

"True," Flannery said, knowing how May was feeling based on her observations and May's continual anger at the lack of communication from Ash. She looked to her grandfather and said, "Gramps, I'm ending this here for today, okay?"

"Sure thing, just…don't go surfing! Hahahahahahahaha!" Flannery's grandfather laughed at his pun as the two women just gave him blank looks.

A few seconds later they shook their heads, blinked and turned towards each other as they turned around and left the battle arena and went into Flannery's lounge room. When they were both sitting down opposite each other, Flannery said, "So, what seems to be the problem May? I've never seen you act this way before, and you've been pretty out of sorts ever since you got here a week and a half ago."

May sighed as she leaned into her lounge. She said, "Sorry about that."

"That's fine. You didn't take it out on me, gramps or any of our Pokémon, so we're all good."

May sighed and said, "Thanks. That means a lot."

"It's nothing, really."

"No. I mean it," May sighed. "You see, it seems that Team Magma and Team Aqua have become active once again and the Hoenn Pokémon League got it into their heads that they could use Team Aqua to work against Team Magma, like they were before."

"Okay, that makes sense."

"Yes. Unfortunately, both 'Teams' have transformed into what really boils down to a pair of doomsday cults that want to destroy the world, and intend to unleash the full powers of Kyogre and Groudon to do it."

"Their _full_ powers? What do you mean by that?"

"It's a long story, but we don't have time for the full version. Suffice it to say that both Kyogre and Groudon cannot use the same powers that they had when they warred against each other during the times of legend. However, certain items have the potential to force them into a state with which they are able to unleash them. Which could easily cause a catastrophe before anything could be done about it."

"That's not good."

"No. It isn't," May agreed.

"So, how do they intend to force team aqua and team magma to confront each other?"

"That's where the insanity leaps a level." Flannery's grandfather raised an eyebrow as he entered the room. May continued saying, "They thought that they could get _my_ brotherMax, to join up with them, with some lame-ass story like 'the league can't do it, so can you'?"

"That's…insane!" Flannery exclaimed. "Even if they _do_ fall for it, no matter how true it is, then they would only be using your brother for their purposes and his being there would only complicate matters further when it comes time to taking them down."

"I know," May said, the anger clear as day on her face.

Flannery sighed and asked, "So, why are you telling _me_ this anyway?"

"I'm telling you because I would like you to move your departure time up a bit."

"My…why?"

May sighed and said, "Kanto also learned about Team Magma's activities, though I'm unsure if they know about Team Aqua or not."

" _Kanto_ did? How do you know?"

May sighed and said, "They contacted Ash about helping them, and he contacted me."

"I see. So, back to my first question…"

"I would like you to move it up because Ash is somewhere near Volley Town and, right now, neither of us can contact someone that we desperately need here by ourselves."

"Can't you just use a phone?"

"I would if I could, but I don't know his number. Even if I did, the last I heard he was on an island with no reception. So, like it or not, we _have_ to contact him…another way."

Flannery nodded. Standing up, she said, "Alright May. There's really nothing keeping me around here right now anyway." She then went to go and pack for the Ranking Tournament, May following not so far behind. About half an hour later, both women were standing outside the gym and Flannery looked to May and said, "So, you ready May?"

May grinned and said, "Whenever you are," and they both threw the pokéballs that contained their respective 'rides' away from them. When they burst open, a silver light shot from it, and, when it was gone left behind May's Charizard, which, unfortunately, dwarfed the Salamence standing next to it.

Flannery blinked at the size of May's Charizard and said, "Wow May! I didn't know that Charizard got to be that big!"

"Normally they don't, but this girl here was born from the union of Ash's shiny Charizard and his Garchomp."

"Ash has a _Shiny_ Charizard!?" Flannery exclaimed.

"Yeah, though he doesn't really like to brag about it."

"I can imagine," Flannery said.

"Oh, trust me, you have _no_ idea."

"What do you mean? I'm a Gym Leader. All sorts of magazines want to take photos of my Pokémon, and they're all normal."

"You see, Ash's shiny Charizard…well…" May sighed," she's a bit of a slut."

"She's a…! Huh?"

"You see, Ash…basically could be considered a Charizard breeder if he wanted to."

"Seriously?! How many does he have?"

"The last time I checked, it was thirteen. But that's not counting pre-evolutions."

Flannery's mouth dropped open at the news. She exclaimed, "Are you kidding me!? How did he…no, you answered that. A better question is where does he keep them? Surely they take a lot of looking after."

"Actually they are mostly self-sufficient and live in the mountainous region of Professor Oak's lab."

"And they _don't_ attack the other Pokémon there?"

"No. they are actually quite mild tempered. Well, unless something sets them off. Then there's hell to pay and only Ash seems to be able to calm them down quickly. Well, that or another of the Charizard overrides its anger towards whatever it was angry at, in favour of a challenge. Of course, when Garchomp is there even then they are pretty civil, even to water and grass types. In any case, I think that it's time that we get moving, don't you?"

"Yeah," Flannery said, getting on Salamence's back as May climbed on Charizard.

When they were both in position, May cheekily said, "Last one there's a water type!" and urged Charizard up.

"What?!" Flannery gasped, and Salamence charged straight after Charizard, having no more love for water than her trainer did, let along being compared to a water type.

XXXXX

It took about an hour for the two girls reached Volley Town. When they did, they set down on the roof of the Battle Centre and returned their Pokémon before taking the lift down to level one. When they were on the ground floor, Flannery led May to the front desk and said, "Hi," a friendly smile on her face.

The man behind the desk said, "Hi…uhh…"

"It's Flannery."

"Oh, Flannery! You're early!"

"Yeah, my friend here wanted to get some time to have a look around town and I figured that I could use some downtime before the meeting."

"Fair enough. Who's your…!"

May said, "Surely you haven't forgotten _me_ Scott?" May asked the owner of the Battle Frontier.

"May!" Scott exclaimed, sweat starting to appear on his face. "I didn't think that I'd see you here. May raised a cool, questioning, eyebrow as Scott thought, ' _I thought that Ash wanted to surprise May with this. Is this just some freak coincidence?_ ' "Well, that doesn't matter anyway," Scott said, trying to move on. "How are you?"

"I'm fine."

"Still competing in contests?"

"I'm taking a break from them just now."

"I see."

"I was actually considering challenging the Frontier myself."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Why is there something wrong with that?"

"No. There _shouldn't_ be any problems with your challenging the Battle Frontier, but I'll need to talk to some of the other Frontier Brains before you start."

"Why? I thought that you had the ultimate say-so as regards who can take the Frontier Challenge."

"That's true, but right now we're in the process of inducting a new frontier brain and things are a bit hectic right now."

"I see," May said understandingly. "Alright then, whenever you can get to it is fine."

Scott let out a sigh of relief before he said, "Sure thing. Are you staying here while you're in town, or have you already got somewhere lined up?"

"No, I don't. There are apartments here?"

"Yeah. The designer of this facility wanted to make it a drawcard for the town, so he included multiple battlefields along with some luxury apartments as well as having a living quarters for him and his family."

"Oh? Why are you telling _us_ this?"

"Well, why not?" Scott asked back.

"Is he here?" Flannery eagerly asked, wanting to see how she stacked up against a member of the Battle Frontier.

Scott said, "No. I'm sorry. He should be, but unfortunately he was called away on other business right before he was set to come here." Flannery pouted, wanting a battle with him to see how she stacked up against a frontier brain. "But while you're here you can use the battlefields as much as you want."

"Really?!" Flannery looked up eagerly.

"Yeah. That's something that the frontier brain was emphatic about."

"What about what?"

"He wanted this facility to be available to the public, even if he wasn't taking part. After all, there aren't that many places out here that you can use to train your Pokémon without needing to restrict yourself due to various things, like the forested area around Volley Town and needing to avoid damaging the buildings in town. But do you want to know what I think?"

"Sure," May shrugged.

"I think that he just wants to be able to continue to be able to battle outside of his duties as a Frontier Brain."

"Seriously?!" Flannery and May exclaimed at the same time.

"Yep."

"Is that even allowed?" May asked, thinking back on all the times that she had watched both Ash and Max battling against Frontier Brains and how desperate both of them had been when battling against them. "I mean, what happens if they lose? Does that mean that that trainer would get a symbol from this facility?"

"No. The way this facility is set up, the Frontier Brain has official teams registered for each field. If they use Pokémon not on those lists, then it is considered an unofficial battle, thus not susceptible to the terms of the Facility guidelines."

"But then couldn't they just…you know, use another Pokémon during an official match to void it?"

"Hypothetically, yes. But the frontier brain of this facility wouldn't do that."

"I see. So who is it?"

"I'm sorry May, but they wanted to keep it a secret until the official announcement."

"Well, if you say so."

Flannery asked, "Can we see the battlefields?"

"Sure," Scott said, "I was just about done here anyway," Moving out from behind the desk. He asked, "Do you want to take the stairs or the lifts?"

"I think that the lifts will be fine," May said, not wanting to waste too much energy, lest she need it later.

"Sure thing," Scott said, relieved that May didn't want to take the stairs, being quite out of shape himself. They went up to the first floor and Scott said, "Alright. There are four battle fields here on the first floor," and went through the closest door. "In here is a rock battlefield." He lead them inside and they were rather surprised to see that, indeed, the entire room was filled by rock, from the floor to the walls of the room, up to the grandstand above the battle field. Scott said, "The frontier brain wanted the fields here to be able to be uses for competitions beyond simple battles, so he asked the architect to include grandstands on the lower levels," grinning at the awed look on May and Flannery's faces as they took it in.

The next room that he led them into looked more like a stage. Seeing it, May said, "This looks more like a Contest Hall than a battlefield for a Frontier Brain."

"Like I said, the frontier brain wanted his facility to be multi-purpose. That includes contests."

"I think I might have to challenge the Hoenn Contest Circuit again."

"Heh," Scott said, "That'd be something to see."

"I'll see if I can convince Ash to do it too."

Scott thought, ' _Ash in contests? I might have to build in some extra bylaws to let the brains compete in official competitions._ ' "Actually May, why don't _you_ take the Frontier Challenge?"

" _Me?_ Challenge the battle frontier?"

"Yeah. Why not? You said that you were on a break from the contest circuit, didn't you?"

"I thought that it was just for trainers."

"The idea behind the Battle Frontier has always to further the art of the Pokémon battle. You should already know this May, but in the Battle Frontier, it doesn't matter if you're a trainer or a coordinator."

"But if I _win_ , don't I become a Frontier Brain? Or has that changed?"

"No. You'll still get the offer, you can take it up, refuse it, or even postpone it if you want. In the end, the choice is up to you."

"Hmm…"

"If it's any consolation, I'll be looking into modifying the bylaws soon to cater for entry into official competitions pretty soon after the Frontier Brain of this facility has been announced." Scott then led them through every other battlefield, including a water field, a grass field. The entirety of the second level was just one massive battlefield that combined elements of the rock, grass and water battlefields, though this one also had ice and sand elements to it. The two women were told that there was a basement that was the same again, though that was quite a bit larger. Scott explained that that was just a habitat for the Frontier Brain's Pokémon, though they hadn't been transferred yet.

Flannery looked to May and asked, "So May, do you want to do a field test?'

"Maybe later," May said. "There's something that I need to do first."

"Oh yeah. Sorry, I forgot about that," Flannery said, grinning sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head.

"That's fine," May said, grinning, having had the feeling that her friend would forget the reason that they came early when Scott offered them a tour of the facility.

"What's so important?" Scott asked.

"There's some…problems…that Ash and I are taking care of right now, and we need some help."

"Really? Is there anything that I can do to help?"

"Hmm…we could use the cooperation of the Frontier Brains, the problem is that right now, we don't know where or when they would be needed."

Scott sighed and said, "I see. That's no good then."

"No…" May said and she thought, ' _Although, if_ that _is here, then…maybe…_ ' She said, "I'll tell you what, how about I get back to you on that before I leave."

"Sure thing May. How long will you be here for?"

"I don't know. I should be here for a few days at least."

"I see. That's good then."

"Why's that?"

"Because, I can only stay here till the end of the week myself."

"Really? Why's that?"

"There's an opportunity for a new official competition in the Orre Region, and I'm going to be pitching the Battle Frontier for it. Brandon's going to swing by and pick me up on his way through."

"I see," May said. "Is there someone that you are leaving in charge of the battle frontier while you're gone?"

"Normally I would suggest the frontier brain of this facility, but yeah. When I'm gone I'll be leaving a guy that I'm training up as a second in command to run things for a bit. Well, unless you'd want the job?"

"No. like I said, I won't be here for very long myself."

"Fair enough," Scott said. "Now, will you be using the battlefield now, or…"

"No," May said, "I think that I'd like to get some sleep now," yawning, only now realising exactly what the time was.

"Yeah," I think I'll join you," Flannery said.

XXXXX


	11. Team Rocket Takes Off

While Flannery and May were settling in for the night, Max was standing in front of the leader of Team Aqua, looking a bit more gaunt than he had been almost a week ago. Matt said, "Now, Max, could you please explain to me exactly _why_ you are, number one, wearing the uniform of Team Magma, and two, exactly _why_ you _didn't_ escape from Wailmer Island with the rest of your comrades and leave that interfering wench to die by herself?"

"That 'interfering wench' as you put it, happens to be my sister."

"Your _sister_?" Matt said, his eyes narrowing in what Max took to be bordering both confusion and anger. "What was _she_ doing there? _And_ why was she trying to get in our way of stopping Team Magma recreating the red orb?"

"Apparently she's become an Aura Guardian. Though I was unaware of it."

Matt thought, ' _May Maple is an Aura Guardian? They still exist? If that's so, then does she…_ ' He looked at Max and asked, "So, did she tell you why she attacked _us_ as well as Team Magma?"

"She told me some fairy tale about there being two more 'orbs' before the blue and red orbs that were destroyed about ten years ago."

"I see," Matt said, before asking, "Did you believe her?"

"I don't know. She seemed pretty convincing, but…" Max said, trailing off at the end, still having doubts as to the veracity of his sister's story.

"But?"

"Well…it just seemed a bit _too_ far-fetched to really be true. And…well…it is May that we're talking about."

Matt sighed in relief and said, "I see. Now, about that uniform…"

"I stole it from a guard outside the cavern that I put to sleep with Roserade's Grass Whistle so I could get in without raising an alarm."

"Alright. Then I apologise about locking you in a cell for a week. But please understand, with what happened…"

"I understand," Max said. "Believe me, I believe in taking precautions as much as anyone."

"Oh? Is that so?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Does that mean that you've taken 'precautions' against us?"

"No," Max said derisively.

"Why not? We _are_ Team Aqua after all."

"Besides the fact that there's no need to?" When Matt raised his eyebrow at that statement, Max said, "What? You think that my father, a member of the Elite Four, needs protection? Or May, one of, if not _the,_ best Coordinators on the circuit?" Max shook his head. "My comrades can attest to the fact that neither need protecting from anyone, least of all a bunch of Team Aqua's Grunts."

"You might be right. But what of her boyfriend's family? I hear that Delia doesn't have _any_ pokémon experience at all. And with her son's license being revoked, well…need I say more?"

" _He's_ probably the one that trained her."

Matt thought, ' _Ash Ketchum is an Aura Guardian? Coincidence? Either way, I'll have to have the guys in Intel. look into this._ ' He sighed and said, "Alright, you can go and get your stuff back from personnel."

"Alright, where am I headed to next?"

"I don't know yet. But take the Team Magma uniform with you too. You might need it again."

Max nodded and said, "Thank you," before leaving.

When Max was in the doorway, Matt said, "Oh! One more thing Max."

"What is it?" Max asked, turning back around.

"From now on you'll be taking a partner with you on your missions."

"A partner?" Max asked, thinking, ' _This isn't good. If I'm stuck dragging someone along with me all the time, then I won't be able to contact Wallace. Wait! Do they know? Or just suspect? Well, I guess it must be the latter, since I'm still alive.'_

Matt asked, "Is there a problem with that?"

"No, if you think it's best, that's fine."

"It's not a request Max," Matt said in a tone unlike any that Max had heard coming from the new leader before.

"Of course," Max said, kind of half-bowing as he closed the door behind him.

When Max was gone, Matt thought, ' _Now, Max Maple, lets see how loyal you_ really _are. But this thing with his sister being an Aura Guardian is troubling. I thought that the ability was inherited from generation to generation, in which case Max would have to be one too, but he's shown no signs of it. I suppose that that's something else I'll have to have the guys in Intel. looking into._ '

XXXXX

The next day, Jessie, James and Meowth disembarked the SS Victoria in Pallet Town Port. When they were off they almost stumbled a few times as they got rid of their sesa legs. When they could walk normally again, Meowth asked, "So, what now?"

"Now…" James said. "…we do exactly what we said we'd do. We go and talk to Mama Twerp."

"Well, alright," Jessie uncertainly said, still not entirely sure that she was completely fine with James' plan. As James started to walk away from them, Jessie grabbed his arm and said, " _Wait_ James. What if someone from Pallet Town recognises us?"

"Hmm…you do have a point there Jess," James acquiesced, "but, at the same time, we _need_ them to be able to recognise us. Such a conundrum."

"We could jus'neak tru da bushes," Meowth suggested.

"We _could_ …" Jessie agreed. "However…"

"What do you have in mind?" James asked.

Somehow, a second later, Jessie was wearing the reporter gear that she used in the Kalos Region and James said, "Ah! Good idea Jess."

"Yes. This way when we're done swiping The Twerp's staves we can…"

"Hold it right there!" James said, taking a break to change into his cameraman clothes. "We aren't _stealing_ anything. We will just use these disguises to gain entry and _tell_ Mrs K who we are and what we're here for."

"Why would we do that? It's _far_ more dramatic when we tear them away and launch into the motto."

James sighed and said, " _Look_. Just let _me_ do the talking. Okay?" James almost plead.

"Hmm…it goes against my character, but fine. _This_ time I'll go along with your plan."

"Okay, then let's go," James declared as Meowth put on a boom-mic operator disguise.

About an hour later, James and Meowth collapsed, breathing heavily as they gasped, "Fin…hally! Mahde…hit!" when they reached the top of the hill leading into the residential part of Pallet Town, not used to lugging their equipment around for extended periods.

Jessie was fine, not needing to carry anything as she was the 'anchor' of the team. She angrily said, "Come _on_! Hurry it up! I want to get this over and done with as soon as possible so that I can get out of this _ridic_ ulous outfit!" James and Meowth grumbled about how she probably wouldn't have made it even half the distance before dropping the equipment that they were carrying. But they were too quiet for Jessie to hear them, so she assumed that they were apologising for inconveniencing her. When they had calmed down and rested for a minute or so, James and Meowth picked up their equipment and continued down the road into Pallet Town.

When they reached the twerp's house, they went up to the door and Jessie knocked on it. It was opened by Mimey, who recognised the three at once and waved his hands in the air between them, creating a barrier in the doorframe. Delia came down the stairs as it finished building the barrier and exclaimed, "Mimey! You take that Barrier down right now!"

"Mime?!" Mimey exclaimed. "Mime mime mi mime mimmee!"

Delia looked at Mimey with confusion clear on her face as she said, "Team Rocket? Don't be ridiculous. That Cassidy and…what was his name again? Botch? Have blonde and green hair. Not red and blue. Besides, they aren't wearing those rid _ic_ ulous uniforms, so they _can't_ be Team Rocket."

As 'Mama-Twerp' insulted their uniforms, James and Meowth watched Jessie nervously as she tentatively restrained her anger.

Mimey reluctantly lowered his barrier, but his eyes glowed blue, drawing on his psychic power just in case it was needed. When it was down, Delia looked at Jessie and asked, "What is it that you want? If you're here for my son, I'm afraid that he isn't here right now."

"No ma'am," Jessie said. "We are with TRN. It's a new magazine that has an audio-visual arm with a focus on the web and we would like to do a story about how your son's fall from grace has affected those around him."

"Oh? Then please, do come in. but know this. My boy is _not_ a cheater!"

"I'm sorry, but I thought that the twer…urk! Ash Ketchum, was twenty two."

"Ash will _always_ be my boy, no matter _how_ old he gets!" Delia declared.

"I…see…" Jessie said as she and her cohort entered The Twerp's house. "Do you mind if we sit down for this ma'am?"

"Not standing up?"

"No. I find that these things are easier if it looks natural."

"I see. Then that's okay, and you can call me Delia."

"Thank you…Delia," Jessie said, almost referring to her as 'Mama-Twerp' anyway.

"Would you like something to eat or drink?"

"No. not right now, thanks."

"It's no trouble, really."

"If you still want to after we inform you of something, then yes," James said. "If _not_ , then we can manage without."

"You need to tell me something?"

"Yes. Though you might want to sit down for this."

"I might want to…" Delia nodded, fearing the worst for her son.

When she was seated, James said, "First things first. Your Mr. Mime _was_ right earlier, when it told you that we are with Team Rocket."

Delia's numbness disappeared, replaced with anger as she said, "Mr. Mime," and Mimey picked up Team Rocket with Psychic.

Before Delia could order Mr. Mime to eject them from her home, James quickly said, "I've got a message from the Twerp!"

Delia frowned and said, "Mr. Mime, wait," as it was about to throw them through the door that she had just opened. "Before you continue, I _don't_ that you have the luxury to refer to Ash as 'Twerp' when Mr. Mime has you at his mercy."

"I'm sorry," James said. "The Twe…uhhh… _Ash_ …doesn't really seem to mind."

"And you can forget about calling _me_ Delia too."

James gulped and said, "Fair enough."

"Now. What's this about a message? And don't try lying to me, I _will_ know," Delia said, her irises changing colour to a matte electric blue whilst the whites of her sclera became golden. James blinked when he saw her eyes and compared them to when Ash's eyes transformed and noted that they were different. Not wanting to think too much of it, James said, "The Twe…uhh… _Ash_ , wanted you to give us his staves, and his hat."

"Why does he want me to do _that_?"

"So that we can give them to our boss."

"Okay, now _that_ will never happen," Delia said and turned to Mr. Mime to tell him to send them blasting off again.

" _Look_ ," James said, gaining her attention again, to stop her from doing what he thought she was about to do. "I was as surprised as you are, or maybe even moreso. That's why I asked him to give us a way to prove it."

"Okay, so what is it?"

"In the case that you didn't believe me, I was supposed to tell you 'silver'."

"Silver?!" Delia exclaimed. "Ash told _you three_ about Silver!?"

"No. Just that you would know what it meant."

"I see," Delia said, sighing as she thought, ' _I didn't think he would. But if he told_ them _to say it, then whatever situation Ash has gotten himself into this time is more desperate than that stunt he pulled at the Crystal Mansion. In that case…_ ' she sighed and said, "Mimey, put them down," the colour fading from her eyes.

Jessie, James and Meowth let out a collective sigh of relief as they were lowered to the floor. James asked, "Uhh…what exactly _is_ 'silver'?"

Delia said, "If you're hungry, there is leftovers from last night in the fridge. You can help yourselves to something to drink too."

"Really?" Jessie asked, surprised that she would offer them food, knowing who they _really_ were. Delia nodded and left to retrieve her son's staves and hat as Jessie, James and Meowth began to theorise what 'silver' meant, coming up with theories ranging from it being from a Ketchum coat of arms or motto, to it being a password of some sort of secret organisation, or something as mundane as the name of The Twerp's favourite sled.

Delia came back down and saw that Team Rocket were now back in their usual getups and sighed. She said, "Here you go," and placed the items on the table. James blinked and hesitantly asked, " _These_ are 'staves'? They look more like glorified dumbells," noting the intricate styling along the metal and the twin crystals at either end.

Delia sighed and said, "I assure you. That's them. Now, when you're done, leave."

Jessie said, "Sure thing, gulp, Mama-Twerp."

Delia sighed and thought, ' _They'll_ never _stop referring to members of our family that way, will they?_ '

James swallowed the food in his mouth before saying, "Actually, there _is_ one _more_ thing that the…" James saw the death glare that Delia was levelling at him and said, "Sorry. _Ash,_ asked you to do for us."

"Oh? What's that?"

"He uhh…" James said, playing with his collar. "Just so you know, I wouldn't believe this either…"

"Go on."

"He…uhh…wanted you to convince Professor Oak to let us use two of his Charizard."

"He…" Delia sighed and said, "No no, if he hadn't told you about Silver, then I'd have Mimey throw you out. As it is, it's not too far-fetched to think that he'd do that if there's some kind of time limit."

"So…you're saying that you will?"

"Yes. Though I might have to apologise on Ash's behalf."

"Apologise? Why would you need to do that?"

"Well…you'll see," Delia said, not wanting to spoil the surprise.

Jessie, James and Meowth shrugged, silently accepting the odd apology and quickly raced through the rest of their meal to get their bit done with as quickly as possible. When they were done, Delia had them get back into their disguises, though she told them that they were more than welcome to leave their equipment at the inn as it would be only getting in the way when it came time for them to leave.

When they got there, Professor Oak let them in and, as he led her to the loungeroom he said, "So, Delia, who are these three with you? It's been a while since we had any newcomers move in to Pallet Town."

Delia said, "This is Jessie, James and Meowth."

"JE…They're from Team Rocket Delia! How could you bring them _here_?! Don't you know how many times they've…"

Delia cut Professor Oak off, saying, "Ash told them about Silver, Sam."

"Professor Oak looked aghast at the news and exclaimed, "He told _them_ about his father!?" pointing at the three, only now noticing that Meowth was wearing Ash's guardian hat. Then, looking close, he saw that both Jessie _and_ James were wearing one of the belts holding Ash's staves, which were in their holsters at their hips, Jessie's left and James' right.

At Professor Oak's declaration, Jessie, James and Meowth all exclaimed, "Papa-Twerp!?"

Professor Oak looked at the three and shook his head, sighing at the name the three had used for Silver Ketchum. Delia testily said, " _No_ , he _didn't_ , but _you_ just _did_!"

"Oh…uhh…sorry Delia. I didn't…"

Delia sighed and said, "I know. Don't worry. After all the schemes that they've _both_ foiled, it would be strange if the higher ups _didn't_ know about him."

"I see," Professor Oak said, his tone all the apology that Delia needed. "So, why _did_ you bring them here?" as Tracey walked in.

"Ash told them that they could borrow some of his Charizard."

"Some of his…?!" Professor Oak exclaimed. Then he rubbed his chin and said, "If he gave them his staff and hat, then he must be in a pretty dire situation. If that's the case, then…" thinking out loud. He said, "Alright," and looked to Tracey and said, "Tracey, take these three to Ash's Charizard."

"To his…! Are you sure?" Tracey asked, his tone suggesting that there might be something wrong with his mentor's mind.

"Yes," Professor Oak said, "and get _those_ pokémon too."

" _Those_ pokémon? Do you mean his…" Professor Oak nodded. "Well, if you say so Professor," Tracey said before he left the room.

James said, "Uhh… _those_ pokémon?"

"Yes," Professor Oak said. "Since Ash is having _you three_ take his guardian gear to him, that means that he is going to be undertaking action for some great purpose. As such, he will likely need access to his 'Guardian Team' as well." Just then, Tracey returned and handed three pokéballs each to Jessie and James that looked nothing like any pokéball that they'd seen before. The bottom half of them was black and the top half was blue. The button was yellow and had three white spikes spreading out from it, two in the black half and one in the blue.

Professor Oak nodded his head at the rockets and said, "Put them in the slots of Ash's belts." Jessie and James numbly did as instructed. When they were done, Tracey handed them both an extra pokéball and said, "Now, come with me."

When team rocket followed Tracey out of the lab, Professor Oak turned to Delia and asked, "Are you _absolutely_ sure about this Delia?"

Delia nodded and said, "It's what Ash wanted and, according to him, despite what they normally do, when it comes down to it, they aren't inherently 'bad'. Based on what I've seen so far today, he seems to be right too. It's almost like they just don't know any other way. Though Jessie _does_ make a good reporter."

"Really?" Professor Oak asked. "Well, I suppose that if he's willing to trust _them_ , with his Charizard, he May have more planned for the than just having them deliver his guardian gear to him."

"Well, it _is_ Ash after all," Delia said.

"Speaking of which, Lance contacted me and said that Ash was doing some work for him over in the Hoenn Region."

"The Hoenn Region you say?" Delia asked. Professor Oak nodded and saw Delia's eyes change and a look came onto her face that he hadn't seen in years. He knew what she was going to say before she said, "Professor…"

Tracey and Team Rocket walked through the slight tunnel entrance to where Ash's Charizard had made their home and he said, "Alright!" at the top of his voice, cutting through the noise of the many battles raging between them all and gaining their attention. He said, "Ash needs two of you to give these three a ride!" shaking his thumb towards the nervous members of Team Rocket, all three having flashbacks of the times that they had been blasted off by one of Ash's Charizard, though they didn't recognise any of the Charizard present. Most of them went back to fighting, though two _did_ make their way over to Tracey, Jessie, James and Meowth.

James gulped at the truly massive size of them and nervously asked, "Do they…uhh…have nicknames?"

"No. Ash can tell them apart with a glance and has never wanted to be bogged down trying to remember them all."

"I…uhh..see…" James said as one of the Charizard turned its back to him and the other did the same for Jessie. Tracey handed both Jessie and James one of the pokéballs registered to Ash and they placed them into one of the empty slots on _their_ pokébelts. James said, "Thank you," nodding as he climbed onto Charizard's back.

"Don't thank _me_ ," Tracey said. As he was about to turn away, he called out, "Oh! Meowth, I'd hold onto that hat if I were you."

"Huh? What do ya meaaahhhhHH!" Meowth screamed from his spot in front of James as both Charizard took to the sky, already at their top speed, headed for the Hoenn Region, seeing their master's gear on their riders.


	12. Team Rocket Sets Down

As they flew out over the ocean, Meowth cried out, "Nooo!" squinting against the wind as he clutched the hat for all he was worth. "Nod…dish…wayyy!" both Charizard came to an immediate stop so that they could _both_ hear the words of the odd pokémon.

Jessie James and Meowth all let out a collective sigh of relief, beyond relieved that they could, you know, breathe and hear normally again. Meowth, being a pokémon, recovered more quickly than Jessie and James. He said, "Okay, youse two's 'ave gotsta understand sumthin' before we go on, a'ight?" Both pokémon cocked their heads. "Ya see, we's not used ta da speeds dat youse two 'r' movin' at, so's it's takin' ev'ryt'in' we's got ta jus' hold on to yas."

The one that Jessie was riding grunted and Meowth said, "Da point is, ya gotsta go slower fo' us, or we's gonna die! Den da twoip ain' gonna be pleased dis time." Both charizsard seemed to look embarrassed. Or annoyed. Meowth couldn't really tell. He said, "Da secon' t'in' is dat while we defin'ly gonna end up deliverin' dis stuff ta da twoip, we's got ta take a detour tr'u' da Johto Region. Both Charizard looked alarmed and let out a sound of apology before heading back to Johto at a far more sedate pace.

As they flew at a leisurely pace, Jessie called over to James, "Well, now we know what that apology was all about."

"James said, "Maybe so Jess, but you have to admit, the twerp really does know how to keep his pokémon super fit."

"That's true," Jessie admitted.

Meowth said, "While dat's true James, I jus' wanna know how dese Charizard got so fast."

James joked, "The twerp probably tied boulders to them."

The Charizard that he was one let out a sequence of noises and James looked to Meowth and said, "Care to transl…" and blinked as he saw Meowth's skin lose what colour it had left.

Jessie looked over and said, "Meowth! What's wrong?"

Mowth shook its head and said, "I could be mistranslatin' dis, but dis lug 'ere jus' told me dat only one of dem back dere flies wit' dem, but he carries dem about." Jessie's Charizard breathed a stream across Meowth's brow, singing its eyebrows before it let out an emphatic sound. Meowth said, "Sorry. Sheesh! It's not'in' ta get so touchy about!"

"What did she say Meowth?" Jessie asked.

"Apparen'ly dat one's got da hots for da one dat flies wi' boulders, 'n' she's a female."

"Ah," James said.

Meowth asked the Charizard that he was riding "'n' wha' do ya t'ink 'bout dat?" James' Charizard let out a huff and looked away, indicating just how much he didn't give a flying toss about it.

Jessie grumbled, "Well, no love triangle there then." She thought, ' _Sa-ayy…this could be seen as an opportunity, couldn't it?'_ she rubbed Charizard's neck and said, "Hey, Charizard, hon'," in a sing-song voice that reminded James and Meowth _far_ too much of Harley. "I was wondering, exactly how _does_ the twerp train all of you wonderful Charizard to be so big and powerful?"

Her Charizard let out a confused grunt. Jessie looked to Meowth with a raised eyebrow. Meowth said, "She's askin' who da twoip is," not seeing the raised eyebrow, but knowing what she wanted anyway.

"Ah," Jessie said. "Well, 'the twerp' is a…kind of a nickname that we have for your trainer."

He Charizard let out another series of grunts and Meowth said, "She's askin' wha a nickname is," not waiting to be asked to translate by Jessie.

"What's a nickname?" Jessie mused. "Well…" she said, "…a nickname is…kind of an alternative name used by those that know each other really well."

Her Charizard let out another sequence of noises and Jessie didn't need to be told that it had asked why _it_ didn't have one. She surprised James and Meowth when she said, "I don't know. You'd have to ask the twerp about _that_. It could just be that he can tell you apart with a glance, so he doesn't need one. Also, you are only allowed to use one pokémon at a time, except under certain battle conditions, so just 'Charizard' would do under normal battle circumstances." Charizard let out another series of noises and Jessie said, "You want _me_ to…?" A strange feeling settling in her stomach. She said, "I'm… _honoured_?! That you would ask me to do that, but no. you are the twerp's pokémon and, if anyone is set to give you a nickname, it's him."

James blinked, coming out of the shock that he was in from bearing witness to _Jessie_ of all people, somehow managing to form a close bond with one of the twerps pokémon. One of his Charizard no less. He thought, ' _Will wonders never cease. Who would've thought that either of_ us _would ever manage to gain the trust of one of the twerp's powerhouses! Although, I suppose that Jessie_ can _be kind of like a Charizard herself at times, so it probably shouldn't come as_ that _much of a surprise._ ' He rubbed his Charizard's neck and said, "You can't understand that _either_ , can you?"

James' Charizard shook his head as the coastline of the Johto Region came into view. As they reached the shore, James said, "Do you need to take a break, or can you fly on some more?" James saw his Charizard move its arm forward so that he would see and raised its thumb, a smile on its face. "Okay then," James said. "I'm afraid that we are still going to need to set down though."

"Why's dat James?" Meowth asked as his Charizard cocked its head.

"Because we have no idea where on Johto's coastline we are, so we don't know where to go to get to Team Rocket HQ."

"Oh! Right! I forgot!" Meowth exclaimed as Jessie's face lost all of its colour, realising exactly how much that oversight could have cost them.

James and his Charizard let out exasperated sighs as Jessie's Charizard seemed to glow a bit redder than it normally was. James said, "Alright Charizard, we'll need to set down at the first town you see, okay?" his Charizard let out a huff of acceptance as it nodded once. "Thank you," James said as he thought, ' _You know, when you get to know them, Charizard aren't all that scary,_ ' and relaxed, getting ready to enjoy the flight.

The next twenty minutes were full of wonderment for James, and irritation at not seeing a town for Jessie, while Meowth was wondering exactly _why_ he didn't like getting in a pokéball, wishing every second that they were in the air, that they _weren't_. but that was jut short as they felt their Charizard start to descend. James asked, "What's going on?" His Charizard let out a bunch of noises and James, to his shock, actually understood what it meant. He said, "So you've seen a town then?" His Charizard let out another huff of acceptance. "I don't suppose that _you_ ever fly this way, do you?...Only to Cinnabar Island you say?" His Charizard nodded.

Jessie, eavesdropping on the conversation, asked, "What up there. If you only ever fly to Cinnabar Island, how did you know the direction to go to get to the Hoenn Region?" Jessie waited for her Charizard to answer her before she exclaimed, "Wai…Are you serious?! The twerp and the contest twerpette are…!"

"What is it Jessie?" James asked, unable to understand Jessie's Charizard for some reason.

After her Charizard reiterated her point, Jessie said, "Well James, according to Charizard here, the twerp and the hoenn twerpette are…" Jessie gulped. "…engaged! So the twerp hasd been going back and forth between the regions for some time now and takes a few of his Charizard along to give them some exercise and so that they don't tire out along with way."

James said, "Hey Jessie, you don't think that that Battle Facility that they recently built near Volley Town could…"

Jessie said nothing, considering the possibility of what James was saying and she said, "It could make sense I suppose. But if the twerp _did_ , then he'd have to stop going from region to region, challenging the Regional Leagues. I don't know about you, but I just can't see that happening, can you?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," James said, seeing the logic in what Jessie was saying, but having a niggling feeling that _he_ was right this time. Neither Charizard spoke up as they landed, both knowing full well what the answer was.

They landed near the town's Pokécentre and Jessie said, "We're going to need to return you to your pokéballs while we're in town," to her Charizard, then asked, "Is that okay with you?" Her Charizard, and James' nodded their acceptance and they were consumed by a red light seconds later. As they returned their pokéballs to _their_ belts, Jessie said, "Do you think that we should check them into the Pokécentre to let nurse joy look at them James?"

"I doubt they need it, but it certainly can't hurt. My precious Inkay _could_ use a bit of a check-up though."

"Well, it _has_ been a while since Gourgeist got checked by a Nurse Joy too, hasn't it?" Jessie said, putting a finger to her chin.

"Considering the dangers that we are likely to face if the twerp was totally truthful, then it's probably for the best." With that decided they went into the Pokécentre.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, in Volley Town May was smiling as she took off the grappling gloves that she was wearing as she left the battlefield with Hitmonlee. She said, "That was good Hitmonlee, I…" then she saw Flannery's mouth hanging open on the side of the field. She said, "Flannery? What's wrong?"

"What's _wrong_?!" Flannery exclaimed. "You're fighting against one of your pokémon. _That's_ what's wrong with this picture.

May scratched the side of her head and giggled as she said, "Yeah, I suppose that someone else _would_ think that." Hitmonlee looked somewhat distressed. Seeing the look that her training partner had, May said, "No no, you aren't doing anything wrong Hitmonlee!" feeling guilty for Flannery's actions. She looked back to Flannery as she went over to the bench behind her and said, "Hitmonlee, return," returning it to the pokéball that she had picked up from the bench.

When Hitmonlee was back in its pokéball, Flannery said, "Alright, exactly _what_ is going on here?"

May sighed as she reclined on the bench and drank from the water bottle that she had placed on the bench before she started sparring with Hitmonlee. She said, "Have a seat," motioning to the spare space on the bench that she was on.

Flannery said, "Okay," and sat down at an angle. She said, "May. Now, I get you wanting to stay in shape, I really do, but _that_ is just not safe. For you _or_ for Hitmonlee."

"Sure it is," May said. "Hitmonlee dials it back a bit when we're sparring, by not using any _actual_ attacks, just the methods, movements and tactics that we use during battle."

"Even so, you can't _really_ think that it is…"

May sighed and said, "Listen, I'm a…" all of a sudden, May's eyes glowed red as she said, "Wait here Flannery," and stood up, releasing Mienshao from the second pokéball that she'd had lying on the bench.

"What do you _mean_ 'stay here'," Flannery demanded, standing up and following after May as she headed for the elevator. When May didn't answer, Flannery continued to demand answers until May got into the elevator and erected a red barrier over the entrance.

May said, "Sorry Flannery, but this is for your own safety." Flannery didn't buy it as the lift doors closed and ran down the stairs next to the lift. As May went down from level one to the ground floor, she sighed and thought, ' _What are you doing here now, Max?'_

When she disembarked, she saw Flannery burst through the door to the stairwell and sighed. She said, "So, not going to take a hint then, eh?"

Flannery smirked and said, "Not until you give me a reason."

May sighed and said, "Well, alright then, come with me," as she headed to the front desk.

When the two women got to the front desk, they saw a teenager wearing blue shorts and a hooded t-shirt demanding, "I want to see my sister now!" while the girl next to him, the same age with emerald green hair, wearing a black skirt and a white v-neck tank top under an opened yellow short sleeved shirt that had a red hem. She also had red and white sneakers, worn with ankle-socks.

The desk worker said, "Like _I_ said, we can't give out information on guests at the ho…"

"I don't _need_ you to give me _any_ information on my sister, I just need to see her, damn it!"

" _Max_!" May sternly said, noting the amusement that the girl that he was with was getting from her brother's interactions with the poor desk worker. "What are you doing here, and who is _that_?"

"Ah! May!" Max exclaimed. "There you are!"

"Wait, you know this person?" the desk worker said, looking at May.

"Yeah, he was telling the truth," May said, before muttering, "unfortunately," so that only Flannery could hear her, who smiled in exasperated amusement.

Max said, "We need to talk, _alone_ ," looking at Flannery.

May sighed and said, "No Max, I'm not going anywhere with the two of you. You are both welcome to come up to the room that Flannery and I are sharing, but that is as far as it goes."

"Alright, but are you sure?"

May smiled and said, "Even if I _did_ try and ditch her, she'd still eavesdrop anyway, so what's the point?" Flannery shrugged, silently echoing May's point.

Max sighed and said, "Alright then," and turned to his 'travelling companion', and said, "come on Ellie," nodding towards his sister.

They took the lift to May's room and, on the way, max said, "Man sis, you really need a shower."

Flannery said, "Yeah, well, you'd be pretty sweaty too if you just finished fighting against one of your pokémon, Max."

Ellie thought, ' _She just…Well, that_ would _go a fair way to explaining just how exactly she managed to fight against our forces at the same time as she did against those of Team Magma._ '

As they went up, May looked at Ellie and asked, "So, are you _also_ with Team Aqua, Ellie?"

"Uhhh…" Ellie said, dumbstruck that May would be so blunt about it. "N…n…no! Why would I be with _them_?"

"Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to try and attack you now."

"Then…"

"Back at the island, I was trying to prevent _both_ 'Teams'," using air quotes, "from acquiring one of the original orbs. I have no interest in your activities other than that."

"I…see…" Ellie said, unsure how to deal with the Aura Guardian that her brother had told her about, as she was completely different to what she had been told.

May asked, "What seems to be the problem?" as they got off the elevator, noticing how 'off' she was acting.

Ellie sighed and said, "It's just that…well…you're not exactly what I imagined."

"Oh? And what _did_ you think that I'd be like?"

"Well…the people in my family always said that the Aura Guardians were a group dedicated to the restriction of freedoms of expression."

May sighed and asked, "Was there a reason?"

"Well, they said that you lot were responsible for the sealing of Kyogre's power. And that all pokémon should be free to do what they want."

May sighed and said, "I see, so you're descended from the one of the high priests, are you?"

"One of the…you _know_ about what happened _then_!?" Ellie exclaimed.

"That's right. I know _everything_ about what happened." May said. "Believe me, the Guardians at the time _didn't_ want to seal their powers, however, they were just too dangerous at full power when the orbs were involved, so we sealed them. Or, more exactly, we sealed the external source of their power."

"You…" Ellie said, before thinking, ' _That's different to what Matt and I were taught. Were we wrong all these years? No. It's not possible! She's either lying or has been misinformed._ ' She sighed. ' _Whew, almost got deceived by her. I'll need to watch out for_ her _. Even if Max does seem genuine in his desire to stop Team Magma, I can't trust his sister. Wait! If_ she's _an Aura Guardian, then is Max also…_ ' her eyes flickering towards her partner as they sat down in one of the chairs in May and Flannery's room. ' _Hmm…I suppose only time will tell._ '

Max asked, "Is there something wrong?" seeing his partner glance at him before looking back to his sister.

"No," Ellie lied.

"You know, you're a pretty bad liar for someone in Team Aqua," May said. "You can ask us whatever you want, you know. Unless it's something like, who are the other Guardians, or what we can do, of course," her eyes glowing red.

"Of course," Ellie said, getting kind of freaked out by the way that her partner's sister's eyes were glowing as she stared at her.

Max said, "We are actually here to ask for your help."

"You're…" May laughed. "Uhh…exactly _what_ makes you think that _I_ would _help_ Team _Aqua_?"

"It's not 'aiding Team Aqua'," Max said. "It's 'attacking Team Magma'."

May raised an eyebrow and said, "Go on."

Max looked to his partner and said, "Ellie, you'd probably know more than me."

Ellie said, "We received reports a couple of weeks ago that Team Magma is active in the region of Mount Camerupt. When max told me that you were here, we figured that it would be…tactically useful to ascertain whether or not we could gain your aid when we attempt to interfere with whatever they are doing around here."

May sighed. She said, "I'm all for teaming up with my brother, however…" trailing off at the end, uncertain if she should stay around them when Ash was about to help her contact Riley.

Max sighed and said, "That's fine. It's completely understandable if you don't want to team up with us when we are acting as agents for Team Aqua."

May said, "Give me a couple of days to think on this, and I'll get back to you with an answer."

"Sure thing," Max said, glad for the potential aid of his sister after witnessing exactly what she was capable of in the incident that caused him to be dragging Ellie all over the Hoenn Region with him. "While we're here…do you know anywhere that we could stay?"

"You know that clerk that you were yelling at before?"

"Yes?"

"Ask her to contact Scott. He's currently running this place. If you talk to him, he might be willing to let you stay here for a couple of days. Of course, I'd hold off on mentioning your affiliation with Team Aqua."

"Of course," Max said, pushing his glasses upwards.

Ellie said, " _Actually_ , it's probably better that I do it while you stay here."

"Yeah, maybe," Max said, more than willing to admit that there might be some issues with his trying to reason with the desk worker after acting the way he did.

"If you need to, tell her to set up a conference call with this room."

"Alright. Thank you May," Ellie said as she got up from her chair. She then left the room while her partner stayed behind with his sister.


	13. The Head Of Team Rocket

When they were inside the Pokécentre, Jessie, James and Meowth went straight up to the front des, completely forgetting that they weren't in disguises, them having blown off when they first left Pallet Town and Jessie said, "Hello Nurse Joy, could you please have a look at our pokémon for us?"

Nurse Joy took one look at their uniforms and frowned. In a stern voice, she said, "We don't serve _you people_ here. Please leave, or I'll call Officer Jenny."

"No! Please don't!" Jessie exclaimed. "We're not here to do anything bad, I swear!"

Nurse Joy blinked, the frown disappearing as she thought, ' _They_ seem _to be telling the truth._ ' She said, "Hmm…" the suspicion still in her voice.

James said, "We're on an errand for the twe…uh…" an uncertain tone at the end. Then, getting an idea, he said, "…for Professor Oak."

Nurse Joy got a doubtful look on her face and said, "Wait right there," and picked up the phone.

"Uhh…what're you doing?" James asked.

"I'm calling Professor Oak. If he backs up your story, then I'll be happy to help you. If he _doesn't_ , then the next call I make will be for Officer Jenny!" Nurse Joy was surprised at the lack of reaction coming from the Team Rocket thugs and punched in the number for Professor Oak's Lab. After the third ring, the line was picked up and she said, "Professor Oak?"

"Yes?" she heard.

"I've got two members of…"

"I'm sorry, who is this?" Professor Oak said, cutting Nurse Joy off.

"Oh!" Nurse Joy exclaimed. "Of course! I'm sorry about that. I'm the Nurse Joy in charge of the Pokécentre in Len Town."

" _Len Town_? I'm sorry, I didn't think that bill had reached Len Town yet. Or Macey for that matter."

"Who are they?"

"They're some trainers that recently received their first pokémon from me and wanted to get an early start in the Johto Region."

"Oh. Then no, sorry. I haven't met any new trainers from Kanto."

"Then why _are_ you calling?"

"I've got two members of Team Rocket here that are claiming to be on some kind of errand for you."

"Hmm…well, they are actually doing something for a friend of the family, not me. Why? Did something happen?"

"I don't know yet. They just came in and asked if I could see to their pokémon."

"Well, why aren't you?"

"I don't know about the Kanto Region, but there has been a recent increase in Team Rocket activity here in Johto. The Pokécentre corporation has implemented certain…procedures…that I don't agree with when it comes to providing aid to pokémon belonging to trainers working on behalf of criminal organisations."

"I see. That _is_ a pity."

"Yes. But, if these people are working for you as they say, then that means that they aren't working as agents of Team Rocket, are they?"

"That's a very…loose…interpretation of the policy that you just told me about."

"My job is the care and safety of _all_ pokémon, no matter _who_ the trainer happens to be. Pokécentre policies made up by the bigwigs in Silver Town, for me, are guidelines. The pokémon come first."

"That's a very healthy way of thinking about it Nurse Joy. I wish that there were more people that thought the way you do. And _do_ be careful when you release their pokémon to be looked at. The Charizard that they are using don't have any experience with Nurse Joy, so they might be a little…"

"Temperamental?"

"No. those two would probably be more curious than anything. It's their size that could be problematic."

"Their size? Why do you say that? Charizard only ever grow to be one point seven metres."

"Yes, well, the mother of those two was born in the Charcific Valley, and the Charizard _there_ , can get to be significantly larger than that."

"The Charcific Valley?"

"Yes. It should be quite close to Len Town if my memory serves me."

"I've never heard of it."

"Well, nonetheless, please, do take good care of them."

"I will Professor. Thank you for clearing this little matter up."

"Any time," Professor Oak said, and hung up.

Nurse Joy blinked and her mind went back to what she had to do. She looked at Jessie and James and said, "Alright. Sorry about that, but like I told the Professor, I had no choice. Let me see your pokémon."

Jessie and James handed their pokéballs over to Nurse Joy and James said, "I understand about having to do things that you would rather not do, believe me."

"You're Team Rocket. Isn't that, you know, kind of in the job description?"

"We weren't _always_ in Team Rocket, you know," James mocked.

"No. How could I? I only just met you. Now, if you'll excuse me?" Nurse Joy said as she picked up the tray with the pokéballs on it and left through a door behind the desk.

Nurse Joy was frowning when she came back five minutes later and didn't wait for them to say anything as she slammed the tray down and said, " _There_ are your pokéballs. Now, kindly leave and stop wasting my time."

"Wasting your…What do you mean?" James politely asked.

"You know perfectly well what I mean. Your pokémon are absolutely _fine_. There was no need for you to bring them here at all!"

"They're…" James said as he turned to Jessie.

"Com _plete_ ly okay?" Jessie finished.

"Yes. _Why_ do you sound so surprised?"

"Well, we _were_ just riding those Charizard for four hours straight and _we_ haven't set foot in a Pokécentre for almost…" James thought for a second before saying, "Actually…when _was_ the last time we were in a Pokécentre?"

Meowth said, "I t'ink it was dat time in da Unova Region when dere was dat blackout."

"Oh yeahhh…" Jessie and James said

"Dat would hafta have been 'bout six years now."

"At least I'd say," James agreed.

Nurse Joy exclaimed, "You haven't been to a Pokécentre in six _years!?_ "

"Yes. Why?"

"Your pokémon are quite healthy. You must take quite good care of them. I was _most_ impressed by those Charizard of yours. They are quite well trained. Even if they _are_ a little too much on the big side for our examination rooms. That said, I am curious about something," Nurse Joy said, looking at James.

"What's that?" James asked.

"Your Inkay…why haven't you evolved it yet?"

"Why haven't I…"

"It's _far_ surpassed the level it needs to be to evolve."

"Really?" James asked, before sighing. He said, "To be honest, I've got no idea how _to_ evolve it." picking up Inkay's pokéball from the tray and releasing it. "How does it evolve?"

"It's really quite simple. You just hold it in your hands upside down and look into it's eyes."

Inkay looked to James and let out a bunch of noises and James said, "Only if you want to Inkay." Inkay closed its eyes and, thinking over all that it had been through with James and opened its eyes, determination burning fiercely as it nodded. "Okay," James gulped as he picked Inkay up and turned it around in his hands and brought it up to his face.

Inkay's body glowed as it was surrounded by a blue-white light as it grew bigger, and flatter, until it was almost four times the size that it had been. When the glow died down, it said, "Malamar!" the same look in its eyes as it had had in its last seconds as Inkay.

James hugged Malamar to his chest and Jessie could almost swear that she could see joyous tears start to fall. She cut James' celebrations short, saying, "Well Nurse Joy, thank you for doing everything you have. We'll be leaving now."

"That's very kind of you," Nurse Joy said, thankful to be rid of the Team Rocket members as, even if she had been telling the truth about her disdain for the Pokécentre Organisation's interference, she _did_ still have reservations when it came to aiding anyone remotely resembling Team Rocket.

When they were outside, James returned Malamar to its pokéball as he and Jessie released their respective Charizard. As they got on, Jessie said, "Did you hear what she said in there James?"

"Len Town, right?"

"That's right."

"If memory serves, that's quite close to Azalea Town."

"Dat means dat we's need only go noith from 'ere," Meowth said.

"And a little to the east too Meowth." With a direction given, the two Charizard took off, heading…wherever it was that they were going, at a rapid pace, figuring that they could go a little faster than they had been earlier now that their riders were more used to riding on their backs, though they still weren't travelling anywhere near as fast as they had been that morning.

Three hours later they landed outside of the Pokécentre and Jessie and James returned their Charizard to their pokéballs. When that was done, Jessie said, "So, now we're here in Mahogany Town, do you remember _where_ the base is?"

"Hmm…" James said, "I think that it was at the outer edge of town. Something about a ninja mansion too," and started to walk away from the Pokécentre. Jessie and Meowth followed him, having no clue themselves as to the direction of Team Rocket HQ.

As they walked, Jessie started to feel thirsty, so she dragged James and Meowth into a convenience store to get a drink. They were surprised when they recognised the people running the checkout. Jessie exclaimed, "Cassidy!"

" _Jessie!_ " Cassidy angrily said. "What're _you_ doing here?"

"I could ask _you_ the same thing!" Jessie said, growling as she butted heads with Cassidy.

James and Butch both sighed at their partner's continued distrust, and dislike, for each other. Then Butch saw the hat that Meowth was wearing and said, "Wow! That's one helluva hat ya got there Meowth. Where'd ya swipe it?"

Meowth replied, "Dis 'ere 'at's da whole reason dat we came 'ere."

Butch raised a disbelieving eyebrow and said, "Yeah, now pull the other one."

"It's no joke," James said. "Though t's more to do with the owner of the hat than the hat itself that we need to see the boss about."

"Who's it belong to?"

"It belongs ta da twoip," Meowth said.

"The Twerp? You mean that scrawny brat with the Pikachu?!" Butch exclaimed.

"The one and only," James said.

"Why'd ya swipe _his_ duds? Don't you _know_ that he's number one on the Team Rocket Threat List?"

"We know alright," James said, "but listen to this…"

"Go on."

"He wants to engage Team Rocket's services."

"You mean…" Butch and Cassidy, catching the last of the conversation, started laughing.

Cassidy said, "You _really_ expect _us_ to believe that the Pikachu-brat wants to hire _us_?"

"You don't have to," Jessie said.

" _What was that?_ " Cassidy demanded, her anger almost palpable.

"What she means," James said, trying to defuse the situation, "is that the only one that needs to be convinced, is the boss."

"I doubt _she'll_ believe either of you anymore than we do, but we'll let you in," Butch said, pressing a button under the checkout that swung open a section of wall that revealed a hidden staircase.

When the door was back in place, Butch turned to Cassidy and said, "Do you think we should have told them about her monumentous lack of patience?" Cassidy shot a deadpan look at her partner. Butch said, "Oh, sorry. I forgot who we're dealing with."

"That's right," Cassidy said vehemently before launching into a tirade about what would happen to Jessie when she met with 'the boss'.

Butch thought, ' _…or rather, who_ I'm _dealing with,_ ' and tuned Cassidy out as he went back to watching for customers.

An hour and a half of grumbling about a lack of elevators later, Jessie, James and Meowth were sitting opposite a desk with a Rocket Assistant sitting behind it. She was a redhead, probably just out of the academy, wearing a pair of stylish glasses as she tapped away at her keyboard. Jessie hesitantly said, "So, do you…uhh… _like_ , working here?"

"Oh yes! Lady Domino is actually quite nice…well, most of the time. When she isn't in a good mood I'll be avoiding roses for hours before she calms down. Still, it keeps me in shape, os ther'es that. Why? Looking to turn in your Agent Status?"

"No no. I've never even _considered_ working behind a desk before. I was just trying to make conversation."

"Oh. I see. Sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. That wasn't my intention. Wait! Jessie… _and_ James? OMG! Your escapades with Meowth were taught at the academy!"

"Really?" Jessie asked.

"Yeah," the assistant said, swelling Jessie's ego more. _That_ came crashing down around itself when she said, "Yeah. You three were held up as examples of what _not_ to do."

Jessie said, "Now see here you," her anger flaring instantly.

The assistant kept on talking, taking no notice of the flames roiling around Jessie. "Of course, _I_ thought that some of your plans were quite brilliant, but you always seemed to overcomplicate _those_ plans, and your simple ones, well…to be fair, even _you_ would have to laugh at thinking that a pitfall trap would be effective in our line of work."

Jessie was about to jump over the desk and start to throttle the assistant when James said, "Maybe so, but more often than not, we just didn't have the money in order to add in features that would enable us to procure said pokémon."

"That's something else I was wondering about."

"What is?"

"The mecha that you use…"

"What about them?"

"Why didn't you just but ready-made mecha's from companies like Ev-echa Co, Arch-Criminal Meca Enterprise, or even our own Rocket Mecha Corp? Not only would it be cheaper for you to buy, you would also have the spare cash to use on embellishments to your pitfalls."

"You _do_ have a point, from a logistical perspective," James admitted.

"Da problem is dat twoip's yellow furball!" Meowth said.

"The twe…? OH! You mean Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu, don't you?"

"Yeah. Dat's da one a'ight," Meowth grumbled.

"I suppose," the assistant said, considering the point. "I still think that it would have been more cost-effective to buy a ready-made mecha and then modify it to suit your needs."

"Now see here you little…!" Jessie started, lunging for the assistant and being restrained by James and Meowth as the door next to the desk opened.

Out stepped Domino. She now had her long blonde hair tied up in a loose bun and was wearing a white skirt-suit that had two pink lines at every hem. She also had glossy black metal pin that was in the shape of a rose that had a big capital 'R' in the centre. She topped it off with a pair of black stockings and white stilettos. With a sneer on her face she said, "Come in," and turned around, walking back into her office. By the time that Jessie, James and Meowth had collected themselves and entered the room, domino had had more than enough time to get back to her desk. When they were in there, they saw three wooden seats in front of her desk and they went and sat down in them. Domino demanded, "What do _you three_ want?"


	14. Team Rocket Prepare For War

Jessie said, "Well, since you were so kind as to…"

"Cut the crap. We _both_ know I want you gone as soon as possible."

"I don't have the entire story myself," huffing as crossed her arms and looked away from Domino's gaze.

Said gaze turned to James, who sighed and said, "It's these," drawing the stave from the holster at his hip, prompting Jessie to do the same.

They chucked them on to Domino's desk at the same time and Domino took them in, caressing them with her eyes before picking them up. Noticing both the similarities, and the differences that they had to each other, she said, "What are these…things?"

that's when the crystals on either end of both of Ash's staves lit up and, above Domino's desk, an image of Ash Ketchum appeared. The image blinked and said, "Domino!? _You're_ the leader of Team Rocket now?"

"That's right," Domino said. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?...Oh! Right! Mewtwo wiped your memories after Mt Quena, didn't it?"

"You _know_ about Mewtwo?"

"Oh yes. I know _all_ about it. Like how you created it and sought to enslave it. But that conversation can wait for another time. I believe that you asked what my staves were, didn't you?"

"That's right."

"It's a bit complicated, but long story short, is that they are conduits for my power. They are useless to you, so I'm expecting them _and_ my hat back when we are done."

"And why would we do _that_ exactly?"

"Well, there are a few reasons. The most important, for you, is probably the fact that they will let me find wherever it is you hid them, and destroy _another_ one of your bases in the process. The second is that I've got another conduit. That's how I'm communicating like this with you right now. The thir one, is the reason that I'm contacting you now."

"So, no beating around the bush then?"

"I've neither the _patience_ , nor the time for that."

"Alright. Go on."

"Team Magma and Team Aqua have taken upon themselves the mantles of the Magmadir and Wykyrogal kingdoms."

"The _what_? Who are they?"

"Two kingdoms from the ancient past in the Hoenn Region. What's important right now, is that they currently want to destroy the world."

"Exactly what does _that_ have to do with _us_?"

"Form what I know, the aim of your organisation is world domination, isn't it?"

"That's right."

"There won't be much of a world left to dominate if either team succeeds in their goal. Besides, with Team Galactic gone already and both Team Aqua and Team Magma well on their way to destruction, that leaves Team Rocket as the only organised crime syndicate of the Pokémon Nation. I'd say that that's a pretty decent bargain, wouldn't you?"

"Hmm…" Domino said, twisting her lips as she considered the possibilities, and consequences of what her nemesis was saying. "You're right. That _is_ appealing. Is that all?"

"No. I want you to let Jessie, James and Meowth go upon the completion of this mission."

"I'll need assurances that our actions will carry no penalties within the legal system."

"I can do that."

"How would _you_ be able to do that?"

"Just as the Pokémon League has pressured the courts for clemency on behalf of Team Aqua, I too can make the same decision on behalf of the Battle Frontier. Of course, that will only be in relation to your efforts in dealing with Teams Aqua and Magma. Any…extraneous…activities that you conduct at the same time will not be covered."

Domino glanced at Meowth and Jessie before settling her gaze on James and said, " _Can_ he make the deal?"

"I suppose if anyone could, it _would_ be the twerp," Jessie said, put out by the fact that Domino had _clearly_ dismissed her out of hand.

James said, "Come to think of it, he _did_ defeat the Battle Frontier. So he _is_ qualified to become a Frontier Brain."

Domino thought, ' _Given the rumours circulating about a new mystery Frontier Brain, it's_ possible _that_ he _is the new one, so it_ would _be within his power to strike a deal with us on their behalf._ ' Domino said, "Alright, we'll help you out. But the matter of _those_ three bozos…"

"What about it?"

"Why do you want me to let them go?"

"For one, I have a job that is perfect for them in by Battle Facility. Also, you'd be doing yourself a favour."

"Oh? Is that _so_?" Domino pointedly said, starting to glare at Jessie, James and Meowth.

"Yes."

"Why would I be doing myself a favour? Even if they _are_ a bumbling disgrace, even _they_ can do _some_ things well."

"Well, they've teamed up with me and my friends on a bunch of occasions." Domino's eyes widened. "Oh! And they've aided the International Police Agency too." Domino's eyes sharpened, her fury evident to all. Ash said, "There _are_ a myriad of other reasons, but I don't really have the time to go into them right now."

"Of course," Domino said, wanting to hurry the call up herself so that she could _deal_ with the three agents before her.

"Oh! One more thing too."

"What's that?"

"I'll be needing my staves, hat and pokémon back _exactly_ as they are too."

"Why's that?"

"It doesn't matter. What _does_ is that if I _don't_ , then my friends and I will makes sure that it is _our_ business to interfere with _yours_."

Domino bit her lip and said, "Very well then,…" thinking, ' _I'll have our scientists run a diagnostic on them._ ' "… _How_ ever, the issue of what to do with _these_ three is still up in the air."

"Fair enough," Ash said. "I'll contact you like this again tomorrow." Domino nodded and the holographic image disappeared.

When the image was gone, domino rounded on Jessie, James and Meowth and said, " _So_ , what is this about you working with the _police_?"

Jessie said, "That was…uhh…"

"You see…" James said.

Meowth said, "Dat was when we was helpin' ta take doin Team Galactic!"

"Oh? I _had_ always thought that there was something off about the story you fed Giovanni about that. I suppose that I can overlook _that_ at this time." Jessie James and Meowth let out a collective sigh of relief. 'Now, what's this about his pokémon?"

James said, "The Twerp loaned us a couple of his Charizard to get us here faster."

"Is that so?" Jessie, James and Meowth all nodded eagerly. "Show me."

James idly said, "Hmm…better not."

Domino frowned and demanded, "What did you say?"

"Oh! No! Sorry. It's just…well…"

Jessie said, "I don't think they'd fit in this office."

"Eh?" Domino said.

Meowth said, "Dem towerin' behemot's'd burst t'ru' da roif when dey're released! 'n' wit' de're tails dey'd reduce dis office ta rubble!"

"Charizard only ever grow to six feet."

"All a da twoips Charizard are larger dan dat now!" Meowth said.

"How is that possible?"

"I believe that it _might_ have something to do with the Charcific Valley," James said.

"The Charcific Valley? What the heck's that?"

"It's a place here in Johto where wild Charizard go to train against each other and, somehow, even Charizard that have been raised by humans their whole lives can grow quite a bit larger."

Domino thought, ' _I'll have to send a couple of agents there to check it out.'_ She said, "Then what's this about you teaming up with _him_ on _multiple_ occasions?!"

"Well, to be fair, those times that we _did_ team up with him, there was some catastrophe that needed averting, so I don't really see the problem."\

"I see…" Domino said. "In that case, I'll have to think on _that_ request for a bit," as she took a hold of both 'staves' and said, "Since for some reason he seems to trust you three, I'll let you keep that had and those balls, for the time being."

"Thank you, boss-lady," Meowth said, kind of digging the hat.

Domino grunted and said, "Also, report to the Breeding Centre."

"The Breeding Centre? Why ever would we do that?" Jessie asked, sure that either Giovanni or Domino would have either sold or redistributed their pokémon long ago.

"We'll be fighting a war when we reach the Hoenn Region. We _all_ need to be fully prepared. That means giving you full access to all of your pokémon."

James said, "All of our…"

Jessie exclaimed, "Then you _didn't_ sell them?"

Domino scoffed and said, "We couldn't even _give_ them away without them being returned within the week. It seems that, for some reason, they will only listen to _you_ , though even Doctor Zimba couldn't work ou…"

The phone on Domino's desk rang and she picked it up. She winced when the voice on the other end yelled, "It's NAMBA!" and slammed the phone down.

Domino coughed into her hand and said, "As I was saying, even Doctor _Namba_ couldn't figure it out."

"Then…" James hesitantly said, "…I get to see my dear Yamask again?"

"Yes," Domino said, getting irritated at the pointless questioning. "Now, get out of my office, _now!_ "

"Y-yes ma'am!" James yelped and rushed out of the office, followed by Jessie and Meowth.

As Jessie, James and Meowth made their way through HQ, Domino thought, ' _Why in the_ world _did Giovanni let_ those _three remain in Team Rocket? Although, this business with Mewtwo presents an…interesting dilemma. It_ was _designed to be the ultimate pokémon, so it's not like it couldn't be…wait! Was it_ then _?!'_ a flashback of the time when she was known as The Black Tulip at Mt Quena with a feeling of bitter disappointment, and anger, over something that she had no memory of. She frowned and called Dr Namba and told him to come to her office.

It didn't take Dr Namba very long to get to Domino's office, him not wanting to get on the bad side of her increasingly short temper. When he was there, he asked, "What seems to be the problem Domino?"

Domino's lips twitched downwards and she said, "is it possible for Mewtwo to wipe someone's memories of a specific event?"

"Hmm…it _was_ created as the ultimate psychic type, so in theory it _is_ possible. But you would need to either capture it, or recreate it, in order to find out for certain. Why?"

"Because, I have it on…good(urgh)" Domino shivered, "authority that that _has_ happened…to _me_!"

"Really? Then do you want help in recovering those memories?"

"No. any such attempts _could_ prove far too damaging to be worth the risk. I just needed to know if it was possible."

"I see. Well then, if you would excuse me…" Dr Namba said, turning to leave.

Domino testily said, "I never said that we were _done_!"

"I'm sorry, Domino…Ma'am!"

Domino sighed and said, "Never mind the apologies. This is too important to was time on things like _that_."

"What is?"

"These," Domino said, picking up Ash's staves. She tossed one of them to Dr Namba and said, "Find out everything that you can about that."

Dr Namba hefted the stave and turned it about in his hands. He said, "This…May take some time."

"You've got twenty three hours, so I suggest you hurry."

"Yes ma'am!" Dr Namba almost shrieked, mentally groaning and launching _many_ complaints about the given timeframe. He put it to the side however when he noticed the unusual crystals in it. He said, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about this already, would you?"

"Hmm…" Domino hesitantly said. "I was told that it was a conduit for some type of power," not wanting to induce any bias into Dr Namba's study, but also wanting to get it done as quickly as possible.

"Power eh?" Dr Namba said.

Dr Namba started cackling maniacally as he left the room, sending a chill down Domino's spine, causing her to think, ' _And there's another one that I wonder about the point of keeping on.'_ She sighed and said, "Well, I suppose he _does_ have his uses."

XXXXX

While Domino was meeting with Dr Namba, Jessie, James and Meowth all arrived at the Breeding Centre and went up to a desk. Jessie said, "Hello. My ID's TRA1137 and I'm here to pick up _all_ of my pokémon."

"Of cour…" The Grunt said as he typed in Jessie's ID number into his computer. He said, "Uhh..there's a…uh…situation…with your pokémon."

"A situation?"

"Well…we have here that you own a Seviper, Yanmega, and a Gyarados. But we've never been able to find it, so you were given one of the ones created by our mk IV Evolution Inducement Ray(EIR)."

"I was _given_ a Gyarados?!" Jessie said, halfway between depressed and ecstatic.

The Grunt looked to James and asked, "What's _your_ ID?"

"TRA1321," James supplied.

The Grunt plugged in James' ID Number and his eyes widened, more surprised than he was by Jessie's.

James asked, "What seems to be the problem?"

"Well…apparently a wild Gyarados wandered into one of our marine HQ's and could only be 'returned' to a pokéball registered to _you_!"

"Registered to…" James blinked, and looked at Jessie and said, "you don't think that…"

Jessie said, "There's no other way. It _has_ to be the Magikarp that you bought from that swindler."

"But why would it come back? You _did_ give it the boot."

"I don't know. You'll have to get Meowth to ask it."

"You've got a point there Jessie, I'll do that," James said.

The Grunt said, "I'll lead you to your pokéballs now," not wanting to see any more weirdness, having had _more_ than enough of _that_ for the day after Christie came in with Frank, grouching about some woman called Leaf calling her 'Matchstick'.

When Jessie and James had retrieved their pokéballs, which had been replaced with their newly developed Rocket Balls, which had a red lower hemisphere with a white band and button separating it from the black upper hemisphere that had a large crimson 'R' edged in white. Seeing the balls, Jessie said, "These are…pokéballs?"

"Yes," The Grunt said. "But don't be fooled. They are no different to regular pokéballs. They just have a custom paintjob."

"Really?" James asked, examining his closely.

"Yes, though I wish that that weren't the case," The Grunt sighed.

"Why is that?"

"Because, _then_ I _might_ have a chance to get out from behind this desk."

"I see. Well, good luck with that, James said, pulling another two pokéballs from his 'bay', both of which were empty.

The Grunt blinked and asked, "Do you not want Yamask?"

"No. as much as I adore my precious Yamask, our next adventure will be no place for it."

"I see. That's fair enough I guess."

As The Grunt agreed with his statement, James thought, ' _Actually…on second thought, if Domino_ does _accept the Twerp's offer and gives us the boot, then what will happen to Yamask?_ ' He said, "On second thoughts, I _will_ take it," putting back one of the empty pokéballs and retrieving Yamask's.

As they left the Breeding Centre Jessie pointedly whispered, "What was _that_ about? Didn't you just finish saying that it won't be safe where we're going?"

"Yes, but if I'm going to save it from being left here if Domino _does_ accept The Twerp's offer, then I'm going to need it with me, at least for the moment."

"For the _moment_?"

"Yes. I _do_ have another pokémon, though I didn't get _it_ as a member of Team Rocket."

"You don't mean…"

James nodded, causing Meowth to hesitantly ask, "We…ain't gon' go see jesse _belle_ , are we?"

All three members of Team Rocket shivered at the thought and James said, "No. all we have to do is call the Nurse Joy there and have _her_ transfer Growlie to me at the Pokécentre here in Mahogany Town." Jessie and Meowth both sighed in relief and continued walking through the hallways of Team Rocket HQ.

XXXXX

When they were in the Pokécentre, in their reporter disguises, they talked to the attending Nurse Joy about making use of the centre's pokétransfer system. When they had gotten permission, James went to the vidphone system set up next to the device and entered the code for his hometown's Pokécentre. When the Nurse Joy picked up he said, "Hello, Nurse Joy."

"Yes, uhh…who are you exactly?"

"You may not remember me, but I'm James Jameson."

"Jameso…! Like the rich people from the estate?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Then what can I do for you?"

"When I left the estate, I left a Growlithe there. If it's not too much trouble, could you please get it and transfer it to me here at the Mahogany Town Pokécentre?"

"Of course I can try. Is there something that I can say to make them believe that this is an actual request?"

"Hmmm…" James said, closing his eyes as he thought. After a while he said, "Well, Growlithe's nickname is Growlie. I named it that because I liked a character called Charlie in a TV show that I used to watch as a kid. That should do to convince the servants to let you in at least."

"Thank you," the Nurse Joy said just before she hung up the phone.

An hour and a half later, the Nurse Joy at the Mahogany Town Pokécentre brought Growlie's pokéball out to Jessie, James and Meowth at the canteen where tyhey were stuffing their faces, all the while wondering exactly why they had never thought of doing this before. When James took possession of it, he said, "Thank you Nurse Joy. But why did you bring it out to me here? I would have come to get it soon enough."

"Well," Nurse Joy said, an uncertain look on her face.

James jumped to the wrong conclusion and asked, "Is there something wrong with Growlie?"

"Well…not…wrong…as such. But the Nurse Joy from your hometown told me that when the builders came in to tear down your wing of their house, one of them used a Fire Stone on it before he tried to capture it, thinking that it was a wild Growlithe that had somehow managed to find its way inside."

"Then Growlie is a…"

"Arcanine? Yes." Nurse Joy stated. "I hope that that isn't a problem."

"No," James said. "Actually, given where we are headed, it saves me the trouble of having to acquire a Fire Stone myself."

Nurse Joy let out a sigh of relief and said, "Thank goodness. You're not like _him_."

"'Him'?" Jessie asked.

"Him who?" James added.

"There's been talk recently of a trainer around here that will release a pokémon if they can't learn a technique within a limited timeframe, or they evolve when he doesn't want them to."

"That's just…" James said.

"Wrong," Jessie finished.

"'Does paw pokémon," Meowth said, surprising Nurse Joy.

Nurse Joy frowned and said, "Did _you_ two teach that Meowth to talk?"

"If we did?" Jessie asked.

"That's abuse! How is it supposed to interact with other Meowth if it talks like us? They could see it as an abhorrent trait and ostracise it, or worse!"

"Hey, lady!" Meowth snapped, annoyed at just how right the Nurse Joy was. Nurse Joy stepped back, blinking. "Dese two didn' teach me not'in'! I loint it all on my own!"

"You…" Nurse Joy blinked again and looked at Jessie and James and said, "I apologiese." Then she turned back to Meowth and asked, "Why _did_ you do a thing like _that_?"

"Why else would a man do anyt'in'? It was for love! You see, I was a street Meowth and, when I saw her beauty it was love at foist sight! I'm tellin' ya, from dat moment I knew dat we was meant ta be togetha! But alas, when I told 'er how I felt, she said that I was just a simple Meowth, and that I couldn't match up against her owner. So's dat's when I decided to loin ta walk on my two hindpaws and speak human. When I did, she called me a freak!"

Nurse Joy sighed and said, "I'm sorry. The things we do for love, eh?"

"You _know_ what I mean?"

"We all have regrets, even Nurse Joy."

"Den why didn' ya toin out like none of us?"

"I'm Nurse Joy," Nurse Joy stated. "I'm not allowed to let my losses get in the way of my work. Believe me, sometimes I just want to lock myself in my room and cry, but if I did _that_ , I would insult the lineage of Nurse Joy, and mock the duty and honour of all of those that have gone before me. So I press on, through the pain and, eventually, it will fade, replaced by the happiness of seeing the joy on a trainers face after I return their healed pokémon."

Jessie mumbled, "More like seeing _them_ in tears."

Nurse Joy said, "Well, there's that too," and walked off, leaving Jessie, James and Meowth with the image of her wearing a pink leather thong and bustier, that had slightly lighter pink stockings attached to it under knee-high tight leather stilettoes and long pink leather gloves, both of which had metal studs placed along the front and back. Jessie said, "Well, _she's_ certainly nothing like that Nurse Joy in Len Town."

"No, nothing at all," James agreed.

"I doubt dat dose two are even related!" Meowth exclaimed.

James sighed and said, "Well, that's all well and good, but I think that it's about time that we got back, don't you?"

"Maybe…although…" Jessie trailed off.

"Although?" James asked. "You _know_ I don't like it when you say that."

"Oh, it's nothing like normal," Jessie said. "I just wanted to know if you would like a pokémon battle, now that we both have access to all of our pokémon."

"A battle you say?" James asked. "It would certainly make this quite a day."

Meowth said, "Dat means A-Okay!"

"It's not altruistic to _any_ degree," Jessie said. "We're about to get in the middle of a war here. We need to be fully prepared to make full use of all of our pokémon's abilities."

"I see your point," James said, eyeing the knife in Jessie's hands.

Jessie saw where games was looking and quickly put the knife down and said, "Forget _that_ , do you want to do this or not?"

"Sure, I'll accept this battle," James said.

"Good, then it'll be a six-on-six full battle, winner takes a…"

"Hold up a second Jess," James interjected.

"What is it?"

"For starters, neither of us _have_ six pokémon. Even if we did though, there's no water here, so we can't use either of our Gyarados either."

"Oh yeah. Good point. Then in that case, it's a four pokémon battle."

"Yes, _and_ , I'd like to set a rule that says that a pokémon can only be used for battling against a single opposing pokémon and must be called back at the end of the battle."

Jessie looked at Meowth and asked, "Do you want to act as judge for our battle?"

"Sure," Meowth said, glad to be excluded from the battle roster. Sighing in relief he wiped a paw across his brow muttering, Dodged a bullet dere."

XXXXX


	15. The Second Primordial War Begins

Meanwhile, in Volley Town, May, Flannery, Max and Ellie were sitting around the dining table within May's room when all of a sudden, her eyes glowed red and the image around her faded away. She communicated, " _Ash?"_

Ash communicated, " _Yeah, it's me May."_

" _What is it? Any idea on what they are doing next?"_

" _Not yet, but I've got that backup that I was telling you about, and they should be here shortly."_

" _Who is it?"_

" _You wouldn't believe me if I told you."_

"Who _is it Ash?"_

" _Does it really matter?"_

" _I guess not. But Ash, we're going to attack the bases today."_

" _Base-s?"_

" _You didn't know?"_

" _No. We're not told anything like that. If there's another base here, it could be highly important. If there was something fishy going on over there, they would have a bunch of eager recruits to call on for reinforcements."_

" _Makes sense."_

" _Wait a sec. Did you say 'we'?"_

" _That's right."_

" _Who else have you got working with you?"_

" _There's Flannery, Max and a girl from Team Aqua."_

" _Are you_ serious _May?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Why are you working with_ them _?"_

" _I'm not. I'm working with my brother. I made that_ very _clear. If, however, I can make use of their information network along the way…well, I can't see how that would hurt."_

" _Okay, that's fair enough."_

" _Well, even if you didn't think so, you can't really do anything about it now then, can you?"_

" _No. But May, you need to be careful when you attack the training facility."_

" _Why? You aren't going to reveal yourself, are you?"_

" _I May not have much of a choice. But that's not what I was getting at."_

" _Then…"_

" _The way Team Magma runs has changed a lot since the new guy took over, and now they partner the lower ranked agents up with other agents of that level when they start their training."_

" _So then…"_

" _They've partnered me up with someone that trained under Koga."_

" _So, are they tough?"_

" _Hmm…you shouldn't have any problems in a pokémon battle against her, however…"_

" _However…?"_

Ash sighed and communicated, _"May, she can use aura too."_

" _She can…are you_ serious _?!"_

" _Yeah. I am."_

" _Does she…"_

" _Yeah."_

" _How did she find out?"_

" _Team Rocket showed up with a pitfall and neither of us had our pokémon with us at the time, to get out of it, we both made use of aura. Though her application was…different…to the way that we use it."_

" _So then she's_ not _an Aura Guardian then?"_

" _No."_

" _Do you know what she_ is _?"_

" _No."_

" _Did you tell her that you were an Aura Guardian?"_

" _No. Just that I could use aura, not that she didn't already know."_

" _I see. I would hold off mentioning it as long as you can."_

" _Why?"_

" _Because, Max was partnered up with someone that has knowledge about what we did back when Kyogre and Groudon were at full power. Though they…misunderstood…exactly_ what _we did, and_ why _."_

" _What did they think?"_

" _That we were trying to oppress Groudon and Kyogre, and, by extension, all pokémon in the world."_

" _Are you serious?!"_ Ash exclaimed, unable to comprehend what he was hearing.

" _Apparently she is descended from one of the high priests."_

" _Is that so?"_

" _Yeah. I'm just guessing here, but she's probably directly related to the new leader of Team Aqua. That aside, she has the ability to become a Guardian herself."_

" _Do you think that you should start training her?"_

" _Hmm…I would say yes, except for the fact that for centuries her entire family belived that the Aura Guardians were evil. Although…"_

" _Although…?"_

" _I've got an idea…"_

" _What is it?"_

" _No, don't worry about it. I'll just do it and then see where the cards fall."_

" _A gamble then?"_

" _Yes. One that could garner_ very _different results."_

" _What_ kind _of results?"_

" _Never mind that. Is there anything else that you can tell us about the base that you are on?"_

" _Not more than I already have, no."_

" _Alright. In that case, I guess I'll be seeing you soon then."_

" _Yeah, see ya May."_

" _Bye Ash,"_ May communicated to Ash, the final words said before Ash cut the connection and May's vision returned to normal.

When the glow faded from May's eyes, Ellie asked, "So, was it your Guardian buddy that's supposed to be coming here?"

"No. It was…someone else…who warned me that there is a recruit in Team Magma that also has the ability to use aura."

"There's an aura guardian in Team Magma?!" Ellie exclaimed, thinking, ' _My brother needs to know this!_ '

"No," May said, "they can use aura, but not the same way that we do."

Ellie had a shiver run down her spine and her hand ghosted over a pokéball as May said 'we'. Ellie thought, ' _Does she know about 'him'…no, there's no way! She's just talking about Ketchum or this friend of hers that's coming here._ '

"Oh yes!" May exclaimed, "Ellie, I've got something for you."

"For me?" Ellie asked, completely flummoxed by what she was hearing.

"Yes…you too Flannery," May said before rummaging through her bag. She pulled out two rings, one that was embedded with a red crystal that was crafted to look like a flame and the other was shaped like a dragon that had green crystals for its eyes. Both rings were made from silver rock.

Flannery said, "Ohh, that's cool! Thanks May, you didn't have to."

"I know, but I figured that I should probably thank you for helping me with this, and this seemed appropriate."

"Thanks. I…uhh…think," Ellie said, looking hesitantly at the ring in her hand.

"Oh, geez, thanks," May snarkily said, somewhat annoyed, even if she was somewhat unsurprised.

"Sorry," Ellie said with a wan smile. "It's just…you know, my family history 'n' all."

"It's fine," May said. "Wear it or don't, it's up to you."

"Hmm…" Ellie said, still unsure. After she realised that she was unable to look away from it, she shrugged and slipped it on. With the ring on, for some reason, she felt…stronger(?) than she ever had before, and felt somehow…connected…to her firs… Ellie shook her head and said, "No! I won't think about that!"

"Think about what?" Max asked.

"Never mind Max, it's something that happened in the past."

"Will it affect what we're about to do?" Flannery asked.

"No."

"Alright, then in that case, you can go with Flannery and I'll go with Max."

"Wait! What? Why are you deciding tha…?"

May said, "I _need_ Max with me today."

"Wha…? What does that mean?"

"Yeah, why _do_ you need me with you May?" said Max.

May sighed and said, "Apparently there are going to be two 'powered' recruits at the base today, and, no offence to either of you, you'll just be in the way," looking at Flannery and Ellie.

"Ex _cuse_ me?" Flannery said, beyond annoyed. "I'm the Gym Leader in Lavarid…"

"I know. And if we were just talking about pokémon battles, then you would be more than welcome, but we will be fighting against _humans_ as well as pokémon, and without having sparred against you personally, I am unwilling to risk it. Besides, Flannery and I can be considered as comparably skilled battler's and _both_ you, Ellie, and Max," May said looking from one to the other, "aren't nearly as skilled as either of us, however you should have other skills that are better at getting into top secret bases that both Flannery and I lack."

Somewhat mollified, Ellie said, "Well, alright then," and thought, ' _damn! Now I can't do my job!_ '

Max wasn't buying it. He thought, ' _The two of you are comparable in strength? Hah, don't lie sis'. You probably want to grill me on Ellie, but you gave the real reason that you want me with you. You don't want to fight Ash, right?_ '

" _That's right, Max. You had BETTER not tell anyone about it!"_

' _May! You're listening in?!'_

" _Yes."_

' _That's really rude sis'.'_

" _We'll deal with that later."_

' _So, what are the rings_ really _for?'_

May smirked and communicated, _"Can't get anything past you, can I?"_

' _Nope,'_ Max smirked.

" _There are aura crystals in them that are geared to raise an aura barrier if the wearer is in danger."_

' _You gave ELLIE an aura wielding item?!'_

" _Of course, she_ does _have the capacity Max. I would've thought that you of all people would have been able to see that."_

' _But Flannery…'_

" _Flannery's is a one-time deal. After the first time the barrier is used, I need to recharge the ring. Ellie's uses the wearer's aura to achieve the effect."_

' _Why a dragon?'_

" _I couldn't exactly use an aura-wielding pokémon now then, could I? Besides, who doesn't like dragons?"_

' _Eh, fair point,'_ Max admitted. _'Where'd you get the crystals?'_

" _I made the one in Flannery's myself a few days ago, Ellie's, I got from that stash in the temple. Beyond that, is there any real need for me to explain further?"_

' _I guess not,'_ Max thought.

With that, May pushed herself up off the table and said, "Well, we'd all better go and get ready."

Forty minutes later, Max was waiting grumpily as May and Ellie still hadn't come out of their rooms yet, Flannery herself was also starting to get irritated, but she was able to sympathise with both women. Then they came out, and both Max and Flannery were surprised when they saw what their partners were wearing. May was wearing a pair of tight black pants and a red tunic tied off with a wide black pokébelt, along with the cavalier hat that had a silver feather attached to the brim by a red crystal. She was wearing a pair of black leather close-fit fingerless gloves that reached halfway to her elbow that had red strips running down the back, an angular simulacrum of the bones underneath. She was also wearing a pair of black leather boots.

Ellie was wearing a three-quarter length blue coat that had a large Team Aqua emblem emblazoned on the back. Around the waist, were a bunch of slots that were filled with pokéballs. She was wearing a pair of darker blue pants and, from what they could tell, a crop-top the same colour that turned into a pair of gloves that left her thumbs bare. The gloves had Team Aqua's symbol attached to a plaque on the back of them. She had on a pair of black leather shoes and topped it all off with a bandana that had a Team Aqua symbol at the front.

May said, "Wow, that's very…blatant…of you Ellie."

Ellie said, "I don't think that _you_ have any right to criticise, _Guardian_."

"Eh," May said, shrugging her right shoulder. "I guess." May then left the room, followed by Flannery, Max and Ellie.

As they rode the lift down to the ground floor, Ellie, scrutinising May's outfit, said, "I thought that all Aura Guardians were supposed to carry a staff around with them."

"That's right," May said.

She lowered her eyebrows as she said, "Are you _really_ going to make me ask?"

"Ask what?" May said.

"You _know_ what." May smirked, causing Max to slap his forehead and shake his head at his sister's antics. " _Fine_ , where is _your_ staff, _Guardian_?"

May said, "Well, if you stop calling me 'Guardian', I _might_ consider telling you," as the doors of the lift opened. May quickly left the lift, not giving Ellie a chance to say anything else and kept on going out the door of the hotel. When they were all outside, May said, "Alright, if we're not all back at the hotel by…say…six, whoever _is_ there, will hightail it to the other base, got it?"

"Sure," Flannery said, more than willing to come to her friend's aid if she had to, and not entirely trusting Ellie not to stab her in the back if it aided her work as a member of Team Aqua.

Ellie frowned as she said, "I don't think I like how you put that," glaring at May.

"Uhh…what she means is that if we _are_ captured, then we would like you to come and save us." Max looked at May and pointedly said, " _Right,_ sis?"

"Ye-ahh…totally," May said, her insincerity clear to all.

" _Any_ way," Max said, "if either of you get into trouble, we'll come rescue you too."

"I'm not so sure that you should be saying 'we', Max," Ellie said.

"Hey, I look after my friends, Missy," May said.

" _I_ am _not_ your _friend. And_ my _name_ isn't _Missy!_ It's _Ellie_! You bitch!"

"Goodbye Missy," May said, waving over her shoulder.

Max sent an apologetic look at Ellie before scampering after May. When they were gone, Ellie said, "What the _hell_ is her _problem_?"

Flannery sighed and said, "It's not you…per say."

"What do you mean? It's pretty clear that she has a problem with me."

"She doesn't. May's problem is that her brother is a part of a criminal organisation. You just serve as a physical representation of that problem. So, she's leeching her anger about the situation off on you."

"Are you _serious_?!" Ellie exclaimed.

"Well, to be honest, it's not only Max that she's having issues with with this situation."

"What do you mean?"

Flannery sighed and said, "Her boyfriend is also mixed up in this fiasco with Team Magma, and she's about to have to fight against him to shut that training camp down."

"Her…Wait! Is that Ash Ketchum? _He_ is in Team Magma!?" Ellie thought, ' _I need to tell Matt about this! This could easily backfire on both 'Teams' if he gets involved. Even more so if he's an Aura Guardian himself. Actually…maybe I should hold off on telling him about that. If he jumped the gun and tried to cut a deal with Team Magma with that information in mind, then…'_ Flannery saw Ellie bite her lower lip, but figured that if there was anything worrying her, she'd bring it up. Ellie sighed and said, "Alright, let's go," and headed off in the direction of Mount Camerupt.


End file.
